Still Fighting the Enemy
by AquiliusDivine
Summary: As the rise of darkness continues Draco must face his greatest fear, the dark lord himself. As Hermione gets to know him through classes and shared interests, the line between snake and lion is soon blurred. Can she save Draco from his father's dark path?
1. The Detention

Chapter 1: The detention

Hermione looked up at the ceiling once again, unable to sleep. Sighing she realized it was in fact the same ceiling she had gazed at thirteen and a half minutes ago, nothing had changed.

She was restless, anyone could see that, but no exams were in sight and there was certainly nothing to look forward to the next day. Two hours in an arithmancy class with Slytherins. Not just any Slytherins either, the only Slytherin she hated that was taking advanced arithmancy. None other than Draco Malfoy.

And the torture didn't end there. The only two other Gryffindors in advanced arithmancy were the only two students in all of Hogwarts able to pass one of Trelawney's crystal ball quizzes with over one hundred percent. Parvati and Padma Patil.

As if Hogwarts had not yet completed its worst curse for her, Hermione had just learned that a new instructor had taken over the arithmancy class. A new instructor that knew nothing of the inter-house rivalry between Slytherins and Gryffindors and one that had decided to put a Slytherin and a Gryffindor as partners, no less.

In what universe was this fair? Arithmancy used to be her favorite subject, but now that the new school term had started, a new teacher took over, and she was given a new partner, she would be willing to trade that class for divination.

Harry laughed when she told him and that certainly did not help the situation, Ron still gawked in disbelief every time he saw her, and Ginny had sympathized greatly with her. There was nothing worse than putting a Gryffindor and a Slytherin at the same table in a classroom. Worse things had happened when a field had stood between the two houses. And all of this was something that Professor Cameron was going to learn very soon.

With an angry sigh, Hermione heaved herself out of her bed covers that had become all too warm and got up. Walking to the window she shook her head as tears filled her eyes. She had worked so hard to gain the highest grades in the school and this was the obstacle she had been given.

Hermione looked upwards at the stars to keep the tears in her chocolate eyes from falling and when she looked down at the grounds she was incredibly surprised to see three dark shadows moving slowly along the edge of the lake. Her first fear was for Harry and she squinted her eyes trying to look closer, attempting to identify the three figures, but when no recognition her heart began pounding faster.

She knew Voldemort -yes she could say his name now- was out there somewhere and she knew that he would never stop hunting Harry, not until one or the other was dead. But these three figures could not be Voldemort for three very obvious reasons, though. First, Voldemort would not hide his presence, second, he would not reduce his image further by slinking around the Hogwarts grounds guarded, and third, THERE WAS NO POSSIBLE WAY FOR HIM TO GET ON TO THE GROUNDS. There was no way that he could get past the security system that Dumbledore Had put into place to assure the students' safety at Hogwarts.

See, she told herself, all it took to quench a mortal fear was to use process of common deduction, though it did not always work because obviously some fears were merited.

Now that Hermione knew it had to be students -not the Dark Lord himself- she felt the great need to inform McGonagal. After the escape of Sirius Black almost three years before, Hermione was sure that Professor McGonagal would appreciate the opportunity to prove a point with curfew and use those found, as an example.

Quietly and quickly, Hermione made her way to her large oak dresser on the other side of the room. Opening the first drawer, Hermione pulled out one of her winter cloaks and pulled it over her shoulders. With a swift, almost liquid movement she buckled the clasp and tightened it. On top of the dresser sat her wand and as she shoved it into the pocket of her robe she smiled proudly. Eleven and a third inch, poly-oak wood, with dragon hearts string. It was incredibly suited for her, as if it had been made just for her hand and for all of her expert subjects, there were many.

Suddenly remembering the shadows by the lake she hurried up the stone, spiral stairs and into the common room where a warm fire was burning in the grate. With a pang of guilt Hermione felt great gratitude towards the elf that had kept it going. She took a moment to warm up then was on her way.

"And where do you think you're going at this time of night, young lady?" Asked the soft voice of the fat lady as Hermione stepped out of the open portrait hole.

"Straight to McGonagal, not that it is any of your business. I saw some students out of doors. It's past curfew and I am a prefect, it is my responsibility to report violations of the rules." Hermione said while pushing a strand of unruly brown hair out of her eyes.

"All right, but don't you have any friends that could accompany you," She asked worriedly. "It is a dark night, a very dark night indeed."

"Ron and Harry are very tired, Quidditch try-outs were pretty rough and they're most likely sleeping like rocks right now." _Not to mention Harry has wanted nothing to do with anything dangerous since Sirius' death…_ "I assure you, there will be no trouble anyway, and if there is, I am perfectly capable of handling it myself."

"All right, but you be back soon, no need for a Gryffindor to lose house points. Especially on such an evil anniversary."

Hermione was about to ask what anniversary the fat lady spoke of but she heard hushed whisperings and the creak of the doors in the great hall. Hermione hurried quietly away from the portrait, pushing herself as deep into a corner as she could and sucked in a sharp breath as she heard the voices walk around the corner from the great hall.

She dared not breathe, but she almost let a gasp escape her lips when she recognized the voices of Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle. She paused, hearing only garbled talking but then their voices were readable and she listened closely.

"-Solutely no idea why that bloke has one of those, I mean I'm a first year if those aren't illegal." That was Malfoy, and his statement was soon followed by agreements from Crabbe and Goyle. Hermione wondered who the bloke was and what they had that could be so bad.

Then it suddenly clicked. Malfoy and his guard on the grounds in the dead of night, Hagrid's hut on the grounds unguarded, and a team of Slytherins talking about things they shouldn't… It all added up to one possible conclusion. Hagrid must have found a new pet.

Hermione inwardly groaned and she guessed it wasn't completely inward when suddenly the voices stopped.

"Is someone there?" Came the cold and dangerous drawl of Malfoy's voice and she could see his outline right in front of her. With the moonlight she could see just a shock of silver before he took a step away. "Hey, I think there's someone in the corner. Get over here Crabbe. _Lumos_." Instantly after the word was muttered the dark corner across from Hermione lit up. She uttered a silent sigh of relief as Malfoy cursed under his breath.

"Could have sworn there was someone there." Said Draco and he turned around. "_Lum-"_

"Mr. Malfoy, what a surprise to see you prowling around Hogwarts at two in the morning." Two in the morning, thought Hermione, but then she placed the teacher's name with a cringe. McGonagal.

Suddenly the room danced with light and Hermione jumped, almost startled out of her corner. In front of her stood four looming figures.

She noticed immediately Draco Malfoy wore perfectly pressed robes as did Crabbe and Goyle. Draco's platinum blond hair was slightly mussed to one side, hanging in his eyes, where the wind must have laid it sloppily.

Draco was almost close enough to touch and Hermione had the biggest urge to swipe away the stray strand of gold, then discarded the thought immediately. _What do I care if he looks like a slob?_

Hermione jumped, startled, as McGonagal spoke again. "Oh, Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle as well? I should have known, trouble always comes in threes." McGonagal was wearing a green night cloak and her hair was in a not so perfect bun but worst of all she wore a very stern, even scary, expression that Hermione had only seen once before. That had been in first year when she claimed to have tried overcoming a mountain troll to save Ron and Harry from detention.

Hermione's breathing became labored and she felt the urge to just jump out and reveal herself, the suspense was too much. But as it turned out, it wasn't needed.

"You there, in the corner, step out and show yourself at once." McGonagal said sharply. "You'll make it no easier on yourself or your house if you stay hidden."

Hermione sighed and stepped out of the dark sheltering stone of the corner. McGonagal's surprise was blatant, then her expression turned to one of stone. "I see, Ms. Granger… I expect you'll have a decent excuse for being out of bed at two in the morning?"

Hermione's throat tightened and she was unable to speak. Though she was looking down she was aware of Malfoy and his two idiots staring at her, clear amusement on their faces and still, she was unable to squeak out even one word.

"You don't…" McGonagal shook her head disappointedly then continued, "I must say Miss Granger; I am most surprised and very disappointed. However, I will not allow my station as the head of house Gryffindor to give biased punishments." She paused as if to add suspense but Hermione knew what was coming. "You will each serve two detentions with our newest Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, Miss Knock, and you will serve them together. Also ten points for each of your detentions will be taken from your houses."

McGonagal yawned and pulled her dark green cloak tighter around her. "I hope you will avoid this in the future, Miss Granger." She said, that stern look boring into Hermione, making her cheeks burn. Then she turned to Draco. "And as for you Mr. Malfoy, I expect your father will hear of this and will be a cause of great grievance for our headmaster, but know this, I am not Professor Snape and I will not lift this punishment until it has been fulfilled to the letter." She straightened her glasses and gave Hermione yet another harsh look. "I hope you have both finished the essay I assigned over summer and have it prepared for tomorrow. Goodnight."

McGonagal turned and began walking away. Malfoy, turning back to Hermione gave her an evil glare. His platinum blond hair hung menacingly in front of his gray eyes and he smirked dangerously, making Hermione shiver. "Better watch it Granger, detention isn't very fun for mudbloods when you get cursed every time you turn the other wa-"

"Trust me Mr. Malfoy, Miss Granger, Crabbe and Goyle, I meant what I said! Go to bed now or face another detention!" McGonagal shouted shrilly over her shoulder.

Malfoy rolled his eyes before he stalked towards the dungeons not missing the opportunity to knock into Hermione as he walked past even though the corridor was wide enough for ten Malfoys.

Hermione waited until Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle had gone before saying the password, "Mugwump," and opening the portrait hole. As she stepped safely within the Gryffindor common room she realized the events of the night had taken her insomnia and replaced it with exhaustion. With a twinge of disappointment she saw that the grate had died down.

After taking her wand out of her pocket, setting it on the dresser, and hung her robe for morning, she crawled into bed. She had no trouble whatsoever sleeping and in the morning she was still bleary-eyed-tired, almost to the point where she couldn't see, but not quite.

Stepping out into the great hall, Hermione spotted her three favorite Gryffindors immediately. As she sat down next to Harry he patted her on the back. "You look tired, were you up all night stressing about the Malfoy thing?" He asked with a knowing smile.

"Actually, no Harry, I was up all night getting two detentions." After the laughter from this statement had died down, Hermione gave each one of her friends a dead-serious expression and they sobered up.

"What on earth could you have possibly done to get _two detentions_, Hermione?" Ron asked while stuffing a whole piece of toast in his mouth.

She smiled at him and said through gritted teeth, "You know, Ron, I'm not always perfect." Pieces of the toast that Ron had just eaten flew over the table as he laughed himself silly. This was turning out to be a great morning, Hermione thought bitterly.

"No, really. Why'd you get detention?" Harry asked as he picked a piece of half chewed toast out of his pumpkin juice then took a drink.

"Well," she began with a nervous twinge. "I wasn't really very tired last night so I got up and went to the window. I saw these shadows on the grounds and I was going to go get McGonagal because obviously whoever was down there deserved detention and well-" Hermione was interrupted by a slow and dark drawling voice that belonged to none other than Draco Malfoy.

"Looking forward to detention, mudblood? I hope you've paid attention in all your defense against the dark arts classes… You're going to need all of the counter curses you can use…" He laughed cruelly and looked towards Harry. "Potty," He snarled and gave harry a mock-salute then walked off, leaving Harry on his feet, Ron right behind him, and Hermione holding both boys' cloaks.

"Sit down and finish your breakfast right this instant. You are making a scene." Hermione said in a harsh whisper and Harry and Ron reluctantly sat. Now they eyed Hermione suspiciously.

"You have to do detention with Malfoy? Is McGonagal mad? You'll mangle each other before you finish the first five minutes." Ron was no longer laughing and had a disgusted look on his face whereas Harry looked amused. Hermione looked to Ginny for support but all she got was a shrug and look that said, "Whatever you did, it must have been bad enough to bring this upon yourself."

"Now, Hermione, I really am intrigued. What _did you do_ to get detention with that git?" Their conversation had begun to draw unwanted detention and Hermione blushed then began speaking very fast.

"I was on my way to McGonagal- well actually I was talking to the portrait when I heard three voices. They were coming down the hallway where I was at so I pushed myself into a corner and was sure to be silent." She paused to draw in a breath then continued, "Then McGonagal came out of nowhere and at first she didn't even notice someone was in the corner but then she did and I couldn't run or anything so I showed myself. She asked me if I had a reason, and of course I did, but I didn't answer, I couldn't for some reason. It was as if my tongue was tied or something. So then I got detention with Malfoy and he said something like 'detention isn't fun for mudbloods' and all those other things Malfoy says when he wants to look tough. McGonagal yelled at us to get to bed and then he left." She finished and her bottom lip quivered.

"Oh Harry! What am I going to do? He's going to torture me!" She wailed and when Harry could offer no condolences she jumped up and wiped fresh tears from her eyes. "I have to go, there is so much studying I have to do." She pulled her bag strap over her shoulder and walked off people staring after her. Harry looked to Ron and they both shrugged.

"We haven't even had all of our classes yet!" Ron Exclaimed and Harry shrugged.

" You know Hermione as well as I do." Ron smiled; nodding and they finished eating before walking to their first lesson of the day.


	2. Snakes and Lions, the War Begins

Chapter 2: Snakes and Lions, the War Begins

Draco walked into the Arithmancy class with no great expectations. Just three Gryffindors to contend with, nothing a true Malfoy couldn't handle. Lucius had always told him, "Hide your true feelings and no one can control you." So Draco drew himself up proudly and hid his disgust just an inch away from the surface.

Walking at an acquired arrogant pace, Draco walked to the front of the class where a seating chart hung. He slowly thumbed down the list and when he found his name next to a certain mudblood he almost went into a rage.

After three years of nothing but good grades, this is what he got. A class with a new, obviously oblivious teacher, and a seat next to a mudblood. Blood rushed to his cheeks as he read and reread the list.

"You know, you may be a wizard Malfoy, but reading it a million times won't change what it says." Draco didn't even have to look in order to know who it was and he tore the list off the wall.

"You're right, but if I just so happen to hide you in a broom closet we can't very well be arithmancy partners, now can we?" He asked while turning. Hermione noted the homicidal expression on his face and was very sure it matched her own. The paper crumpled loudly as he tightened his grip on it and slowly shaped it into a ball.

"No, but my friends have been forewarned that if I _do_ go missing, to check all the broom closets Malfoy has access to." Draco threw the paper across the room and pulled out his wand fleetingly pointing it at Granger's face, then at the paper across the room.

"A_boleo._" He said, the lilting Latin rolling off his tongue. Hermione turned in just enough time to see the remains of the class list slowly glide to the ground. They were but little particles of ash…

Draco went through the entire index of mind calming exercises that his father had taught him and took this opportunity to walk to their assigned table. He felt his pulse slow and he allowed himself a tight-lipped smile. _Good_, he thought, _now she knows I mean business._

Draco took his seat and scooted it as close to the edge of the table as he could get without completely crushing his legs. To be uncomfortable was certainly better than taking the chance of touching a mudblood. Something his father had said at least once he was quite sure.

Hermione followed suit and there was a large, almost three foot gap between their two chairs. It still didn't seem to be far enough away.

Suddenly the door banged open and all attention was focused on the front of the room where a middle-aged woman with long golden hair stood now. She was wearing blue robes and held three rather large books under her arms. Her glasses, like McGonagal's seemed too used to resting on the bridge and there was a red crease right at the end of her nose.

She walked to the center of the front of the classroom, set her books down on her desk, then surveyed her arithmancy class.

Turning towards the board at the front of the classroom she waved her wand, spelling out her name on the board. It read: Professor Cameron, advanced Arithmancy instructor, and specialist in ancient runes. No personal questions. When she was finished she turned back and once again surveyed the students with much scrutiny.

"I see I have done well in choosing your seating arrangements." She said and there were many guffaws. "Quiet." Her voice was strict and Draco could see that Hermione liked that. After all, the mudblood still respected McGonagal even though she gave her two, two-hour detentions with Gryffindor's number one enemy.

"Now, let me see here. When I call your name say present and raise your hand." She looked around to check for hands then nodded. "I will make all final adjustments to our class' seating charts today and they will not change under any circumstances. You may make suggestions on where you would like to sit or where you would not like to sit but I warn you, unless you have a valid reason for not sitting in the assigned spot you will not be moving." She flicked her wand with a well-practiced professional ease and a clipboard floated into her hands.

_She's a good witch_, Draco noted. He watched, sighing in boredom, as he watched her go through the list with her index finger. "Anderson, Malcolm." She looked up, searching for a hand and nodded. "Yes, I see you." The hand dropped and she continued swiftly. "Granger, Hermione, oh you look like a good student, I can tell." And thus she went down the list, making choice comments along the way. "Draco Malfoy." Draco stood and gave a slight bow, just a slight inclination of his head that caused a blond strand of hair to fall into his eyes.

"Draconis Aquilus Malfoy." He corrected rather rudely and he waited for her acknowledgment. She nodded and continued on, her lips slightly pursed.

Draco refused to sit until he was properly addressed and he was still standing when she had completed roll call and even when she had hurled them straight into their first lesson. Draco could see that the mudblood was anxiously scrawling notes as fast as her hand could move and he just stood there waiting.

"Mr. Malfoy, is there a problem you would like to address?" Asked the teacher interrupting Hermione's notes, causing her to mumble something indecipherable under her breath. Draco nodded.

"I am Draconis Aquilus Malfoy." He stated, glaring straight into her cold blue eyes and she nodded, her eyes narrowing even further.

"Uh huh, I believe we have already established this." She said slowly and Draco's cheeks reddened slightly with anger. She was mocking him, mocking his name.

"I would like to be addressed as Draconis Aquilus Malfoy, as it is my given name. Only those at a higher station to me may call me Draco, or not address me at all." There was no respect in his voice and he knew he was annoying Ms. Cameron, but he needed to do this, needed to test his boundaries.

Slowly she got to her feet and walked down the rows until she reached their table. Leaning down and leveling her eyes with his she said very slowly, "I am a professor here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, boy, and I _am _a higher station than you. You will address me, as Professor Cameron and you will show respect towards your established superior. Do you understand?" Her eyes glittered dangerously and Draco's eyes became only slits matching hers but he kept silent, an intimidation method Lucius had taught him in excess.

"Please step outside, Mr. Malfoy, and I will deal with you later." Draco did not move and as she walked back down towards the center of the room he did something never heard of before. Draco Malfoy sat back down and began taking notes.

_I like this Ms. Cameron_, he thought with a smirk. She didn't hold back, she didn't cower with fear at his name. Good, I might actually have to learn something this year, maybe even work a little. It was a given that his father would be informed of the proceedings today but Draco knew there was little his father could do in this situation except accepting there was nothing that he _could_ do.

About five minutes into note taking though, the peace of the silent class was broken as he saw Granger raise her hand slowly. Draco could easily guess by her demeanor, what she wanted.

"Yes Ms. Granger?" Asked Professor Cameron in her calm voice. Granger squirmed and he read her expression. Her eyes nervously looked towards him and his thoughts were confirmed. She was going to request a new seating arrangement.

"I, well, I swear I'm not trying to be difficult professor but I cannot stand to be seated here." It all came out very quickly and the Professor did not hide a look of surprise.

"Why not, may I ask?" She leaned forward as if to get a better look at Granger. The mudblood nodded and she wrung her hands.

"We have been antagonists for five years and it is not the safest nor the most efficient place for either of us to work. I fear that it will become an undeniable distraction for the whole class and neither of us will learn much besides new curses or words by which to call one another." The mudblood pushed a strand of unruly brown hair away from her face with a sigh and nodded to herself.

To everybody's surprise Ms. Cameron shook her head. "I understand there is a natural enmity between Slytherin and Gryffindor as there was when I went here, but that is not a valid excuse for me to separate you. If Gryffindors always worked with Gryffindors, you would never work with anyone but Gryffindors. Same with Slytherins." She paused before continuing her lecture. Granger looked bothered but did not allow it to disrupt her note taking.

Many times during the next two hours of the class he caught the mudblood looking his way, a questioning look on her face. He would casually meet her eyes with the same glare he had given her every day since they had known eachother and she would look away quickly as if nothing had happened.

Draco knew she, as well as every other student in class, was shocked that he had not begun a pureblood riot in the middle of class and Granger had contradicted a teacher. They were shocked that he had not threatened to get Ms. Cameron thrown out. And they were even more shocked that he was so calm and collected. Nothing fit properly and Draco had to be the only one not shocked by his unusual passive behavior. _Saving energy for detention…_

He smiled to himself as he imagined ways to make Ms. Granger's life a living hell while they had to deal with eachother and more than one of these ended with Granger in the teacher's arms being carried up to hospital wing near death.

The bell rang loudly. Draco lifted his bag onto his shoulder and was the last to leave the classroom. The halls were packed with other students and as usual he was given enough space for two Dracos. As the well-known progeny of a dark follower Draco had certain privileges that allowed him leeway in the wizarding world and that leeway was called blood.

He had the purest of the pure, the best of the best, and the dark of the dark running through his veins.

Lucius had once told him, "Those who respect you bow, but those who fear you move. You don't need to be respected to be feared but respect comes with fear. In a way, fear is more valuable than respect." The voice in his head left the odd urge to hit something on Draco's mind and he leaned against a dark wall outside the dungeon to allow the spots in front of his eyes to disappear. He always became anxious when he thought about his father and he knew why. His father said it was almost time to be a death eater, to take his rightful place beside the dark lord…

Suddenly three very familiar Gryffindors walked by and Draco could not resist the urge to eavesdrop.

"So you like her?" That was Harry, he was sure. And next to him was Weasel and his little sister Ginny Pig. What were they talking about, or even better, who?

Weasel shifted and took a step back. He was now not even a foot away from Draco. "I might. But I can't be sure. I mean, Hermione is amazing-" That was all Draco needed to hear before a nauseous feeling hit him with a vengeance. Mudblood and Weasel… This had an odd ring, it didn't quite fit. Sure it sounded right and he had always laughed about it but…

Suddenly Draco felt like punching himself. He was putting way too much thought into this. What did he care if Mudblood and the poor Muggle-lover got married and had little poor mudblood babies. The thought was like poison and Draco sought refuge in his favorite professor's classroom.

Inside, Snape was bent over a long piece of parchment, his nose almost touching the ink on the page, and he looked up when he heard the door shut. "Ah, Draco. Come on in." He folded the parchment away too quickly and Draco suppressed a curious feeling.

"Curiosity leads to short and meaningless lives." Said Draco quoting his father. He mentally smacked himself realizing a little too late that Snape was staring.

"Indeed it does, Mr. Malfoy. May I ask, to what do I owe this visit?" Draco sat on one of the front tables and he suddenly felt like a child. He needed a father figure and the closest thing to a real father he had ever had was Snape. Not much of a category, but it had to work, for his sanity's sake.

Draco crossed his legs formally and smiled only a smile he could pull off without looking _completely_ sinister. "I am very unhappy, professor. I have begun my advanced arithmancy lessons and I am seated by none other than our very own celebrity's sidekick mudblood Granger." He said and Snape raise his eyebrows where they disappeared beneath his hairline.

"I see. That is enough to drive any Slytherin mad, especially since none of your brethren are advanced enough to join you." Snape's voice was suggestive and Malfoy caught the drift.

"I am sure things would be easier if Mr. Goyle or Mr. Crabbe were a bit more academically acceptable, would it not Mr. Malfoy." Draco smirked.

"It would indeed be a great thing if at all possible." Draco said, his voice as slick as Snape's hair.

"Possible? Consider it done. Now go eat, I need you at full talent tomorrow. You will need to show those abominable Gryffindors how to make a correct antiveritaserum concoction." Draco nodded and leapt off the table, straightening his robes quickly then he stepped outside into the crowded hallways.

His spirit was much brighter. Snape knew how to make things happen, another reason why he had been a Slytherin. Ambition ruled over all other talent, and it was talent, for you had to be dedicated and focused on one of two things; yourself or what you planned to do for yourself.

Draco's next class was history of magic class, taught by the ghost professor known as Binns. He was aware of his ghostly state but it did not hinder him the slightest from creating new, hard, even harder to follow courses that always caused everyone, including Draco difficulty.

Deciding he had plenty of time to g o to the library for a quick scan of the dark art study books, Draco made his way to the library, his pace slightly faster than normal. Entering the library he got many odd stares from members of other houses, as if nobody knew he could step foot inside a library without turning to dust.

As he always did, he walked to the back table where he set his bag down. Sliding it over a little more he heard a piece of parchment fall to the floor with a soft tap. He leaned down carefully and retrieved the crumpled piece of parchment. Unfolding it with a gentle touch he stared open-mouthed at what was written and crossed out all over the front and backs of the parchment. It was his name.

"Malfoy, what are you doing at my tab-" It was mudblood Granger talking, but she stopped when she saw what he held in his hand and blushed. "You weren't supposed to see that." She said and he shook his head slowly.

"And why would I care?" He asked tossing it to the floor. Draco knew he didn't care. Why would it matter? They had a mutual understanding that they hated everything about eachother. "I would call this a little obsessed, Granger." He said, a cold smirk forming across his features as he turned to face her.

She glared and placed her hands indignantly on her hips. "I must say, you are too arrogant for your own good, Malfoy, if you think that I would spend one more minute than necessary on _any_ thoughts of you. I was angry and this was certainly a better alternative when compared to hexing your guts out in the middle of the great hall and being expelled." Her voice was almost humorous in its passion.

Draco slowly nodded, the smirk on his face not once faltering. After a minute of staring each other down Granger huffed, grabbing her bag and then she left. He hadn't even seen her bag on the floor. Oh well…

Though Granger didn't see it, Draco mouthed the words, see you in detention, a spark of malice in his eyes and a few spells ready at the end of his tongue.

Walking to the dark reference collection shelf he sifted through the huge variety of old and new books about the dark arts. One immediately caught his eye. It was a dark blue, very aged, and it was titled Hogwarts, a More In Depth History. It must be the sequel to Hogwarts, a history, he thought and he grabbed it fully intending to take it with him. He had not read volume two in the Hogwarts history book series and this would definitely fill up his extra time.

Walking towards the history classroom two hallways away he held the book close to his side, keeping it safe from the careless students rushing through the halls. Sitting down in class, he prepared all of his notes and readied himself for a fast-paced, boring, and not all that enlightening of a class. He highly doubted the ghost of a ninety-year-old ghost could teach him anything more than he already knew. After all, after curfew, Hogwarts was his domain and he knew everything one could know. He even knew of a secret passage that was not completely destroyed.

It was excited thoughts like these that kept Draco awake during classes like this and at the end, he aced the quiz and finished their next section. This was going to be an easy year for him. Once again…


	3. If Walls Could Talk, They'd Say I Hate Y...

Chapter 3: If Walls Could Talk, They'd Say I Hate You Go Away

Hermione sat patiently in the common room, a book in her lap and a warm fire burning in the grate. She wasn't the only Gryffindor in the common room at eight O'clock, but she imagined she was the only one unable to concentrate on anything other than what would happen during detention.

In less then a half an hour she would have to get up and leave the welcoming common room and meet the new DADA (defense against the dark arts) teacher for detention with Malfoy. This was definitely not her favorite way to meet a new teacher.

Another ten minutes, she thought as dread filled her mind. Five minutes… Three… thirty seconds. "Time to go," she said out loud to no one in particular as she folded the page of her book and set it on the table next to the couch.

"Excited?" Asked Ron from the corner of the room, a smile stretching across his freckled face.

"Oh yes!" Hermione said, nodding sarcastically and Ron went back to playing lone Wizards Chess. Harry had gone to bed early saying something about Dumbledore needing to talk to him in the morning. Hermione had given him a hug and a friendly goodnight. She didn't want him to know she was worried about him.

It was with thoughts like these that Hermione found herself wandering through the halls on her way to the DADA classroom.

Harry wasn't taking Sirius' death very well at all. He had become less social, his school work had become a close second to Quidditch, a major change, and he always seemed so tired, like he never slept. Maybe he didn't… Hermione discarded the worry she felt immediately. She needed to let him handle his grief on his own. After all, Sirius had been his only family left after the Dursley's, those horrible people.

Suddenly Hermione didn't know where she was and as she looked around she was unable to place her exact location. It was dark, only two candles lit the hallway, and she could not see the ceiling or the floor. Her heart gave a jump when she compared this feeling to flying. She needed to see floor, to know she was on a stable foundation, or else she was sure to be struck by a panic attack.

Her breathing became labored and she had no idea whether she should go forward or back, it looked like either way she would drop into oblivion if she were not already there. Suddenly there was an echoing step behind her and she slowly turned afraid to play with her luck.

"Granger?" Called a frigid voice from down the dark hallway. She couldn't see who it was that had summoned her but the voice was disconcertingly familiar. The echoes of footsteps were nearing and she grew anxious. Taking a deep breath she put her hand on her chest and willed her heartbeat to slow.

"Luminescence serendai." The stranger's Latin was perfect and the flames of the candles multiplied tenfold, filling the corridor with searing yellow light. Looking down and around, Hermione found herself very relieved that she was in fact, on hard ground and not floating between earth and space.

As she thought more about it she felt foolish. Another ungrounded fear had caused her to lose her cool.

"Ms. Knock sent me to look for you, you're late to detention." The voice in front of her was all of the sudden too clear and she snapped up her head to look him in the eyes. It was Malfoy and he had his wand drawn. Hermione reached into her pocket to grab her own wand but he apprehended this action and grabbed her hand shaking his head. "I'm not daft enough to curse you out here before detention." He said and Hermione believed him, there was nothing else she could do so she gave up, putting her wand back inside her cloak.

Looking around with the new light Malfoy's wand had brought, Hermione recognized where they were. It was the corridor that led to the kitchens and sure enough, not even five feet down the corridor she saw the fruit bowl painting.

"What is it? See a ghost?" Malfoy whispered maliciously next to her ear and she realized he didn't know about the entrance to the kitchen. She pushed him farther away and straightened her robes with unsteady hands. Her heart was still beating rapidly.

"No, I was waiting for you to leave so that I could get to detention without the urge to commit homicide." Malfoy nodded and put his wand back in his cloak.

"Fine… mudblood." With those two words the hallway went dark again and she could hear his retreating footsteps grow farther and farther away. She felt satisfaction well inside of her and she began walking down the long corridors to the DADA room.

As she stepped inside the classroom she was relieved to find that nothing pink remained in the room and that all signs of Professor Umbridge were gone, as was she. She did wonder who this Ms. Knock was and if they would care for one another.

"Miss Granger, how nice of you to finally join us. Five points for every minute you were late, and that comes to a total of… twenty-five points." Hermione looked around and found no teacher. But there had to be one in here. She had just taken away twenty-five points from Gryffindor…

Hermione suddenly realized she didn't see Malfoy either. "Hello?" She called, her voice small and scared. She knew this was probably some sleazy Slytherin joke, but it did not quench her mortal fear.

There was a rustle behind her and she turned to see a young woman standing in the doorway to the class.

"Excuse me…" Hermione whispered and the woman looked up. "Do you have detention also?" The woman smiled and shook her head.

"I am Ms. Knock and you are Hermione Granger. And now that we all know each other, are Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle here, or do I need to subtract even more points from each of your houses?" Hermione immediately took a seat and Ms. Knock smiled. "Good."

"Malfoy was out there just a second ago." Hermione said and pointed to the door. "He left me out there, I don't know where he went." There. He had helped her in a way and she had given him the benefit of the doubt.

As if on cue Malfoy entered disheveled, panting, and disconcerted. "Crabbe and Goyle aren't here?" He managed to ask in between breaths. Ms. Knock shook her head and he cursed under his breath.

"I thank you for locating Ms. Granger here and for that, every minute that you spent out there looking for her you have earned ten points. You were out there for seven minutes so ten times seven is-"

"Seventy." Hermione and Malfoy said at the same time and Ms. Knock smiled kindly a bemuse expression on her long face.

"Glad to have two mathematicians in here." She said and then a frown fell over her face. "I assume your two accomplices will not be joining us." Malfoy looked very sullen and he shook his head.

"Probably not." She nodded and unclasped her red robes. Underneath, she wore the funniest outfit Hermione had ever seen anyone wear… ever. She suppressed a giggle, though it was very hard. Ms. Knock wore a pair of poofy pants that looked like they belonged to Aladdin and a T-shirt that said, I may not be a witch, but I can still charm people. What was even worse was that her sneakers were bright orange with blue stars all across the cloth.

Malfoy seemed to have noticed for he was looking at the teacher, an odd expression on his face. It was a look between perplexed and bothered and disgusted. There were no other words she could think of. There was too much going on behind his gray eyes to apply just one adjective…

"Because your friends have not showed up yet I will mark them absent and I will take five points for every minute they'll be missing. It is a two hour detention and sixty times two is one hundred and twenty." She paused, a displeased look on her face. "That means Slytherin has lost a total of fifty points tonight, and Gryffindor twenty-five. This was not a very good night for house points."

Malfoy shook his head angrily and Hermione could guess why. His house would not be happy that his detention had cost them fifty points. It wouldn't matter that he had gained seventy; it was what they had lost that mattered.

Hermione almost felt sorry for him… almost, but not quite. He had done too much to Harry, Ron, and her for that. She was all sorried out for the time being and she doubted that would change for a good, long while. _Maybe never_, she thought as she looked over and saw him glaring at her, a hateful glint to his cold grey eyes.

There was nothing there, no emotion and Hermione suddenly felt very alone, as if the person next to her was not human, but a wraith of something that used to be human…

It's Malfoy, she reminded herself, he was born higher than human, he had never thought of himself as human before and whom was she kidding to think he would start acting human now?

That thought on mind, she waited patiently for the real detention to begin. The teacher was obviously waiting for Crabbe and Goyle and if they showed up, it would be nothing short of a miracle. As Hermione looked at Malfoy through the corner of her eyes she thought, he must know it too.

After five more minutes of waiting, Ms. Knock began explaining what they would be doing for detention and the more Hermione heard, the less she felt inclined to stay. They, meaning Malfoy and her, would be hunting. Hunting for the source of an unusual noise.

Joy, she thought resentfully. I get to run around with a Slytherin at nine O'clock on a weeknight looking for a noise that was most likely the product of someone's overactive imagination.

It was nearly nine O'clock when Hermione and Malfoy left the classroom to begin their wild goose chase and neither of them was very happy about it. Hermione imagined it was better than cleaning the trophy room without magic or cutting the same thing into your hand over a million times. Umbridge had paid dearly for that little punishment and Hermione wouldn't be surprised if Umbridge were now no more in charge of the ministry than a wild flying pig. She sure resembled one…

"Granger!" Malfoy whispered harshly grabbing her by the robes and she felt herself being flung backwards. Hermione cried out in pain as she landed on the hard marble flooring, her legs bent at an odd angle beneath her.

"What the h-" She was cut off as Malfoy pressed his hand hard over her mouth. She struggled, flailing helplessly for a moment before going still. He was so much stronger than she was and there was not even a competition when it came to brute strength.

"Keep your shirt on, Mudblood. I hear something." He said, his voice almost quieter than the surrounding area. He released her from his harsh grip and she touched her lips. Looking at her fingers she saw red liquid, he had made her lips bleed. There would be no explanation the next day when Ron or Harry asked her, she was sure they would, and then she would have to explain what Malfoy had done.

"Granger." He whispered, his voice annoyed and impatient. Hermione could tell that he was already a couple feet away from where she lay, sprawled on the cold floor.

With a groan of pain, Hermione stood and brushed off her clothes. She would not lose her dignity and she certainly would not give Malfoy the satisfaction of seeing her cry, though the pain was almost excruciating. Her lips had already begun to bruise and they felt swollen and tender.

"Can you move on your own, or do I need to help you!" She heard his robes rustling closer and she was embarrassed to feel herself shake. Hermione was not about to let him touch her again and she walked forward, her hands stretched out in front of her until she felt robes, Malfoy's robes. "Don't touch me!" He hissed as if he had been poisoned.

For the next five minutes he did nothing but rub his arm hopelessly, whispering about having to get new robes and such. As she listened, Hermione smiled. So Malfoy was as big of a baby as she had always known he was, no doubts in that department.

"Now what did you hear?" Hermione asked after ten more minutes of silence. She hadn't heard a thing since they had started and she doubted she would hear anything in the future.

Malfoy turned to her and she could see a flicker of frustration. He threw his hands into the air and shook his head. "I don't know. It was like wind, you know, whoosh whoosh and all that." He paused then added, "Mudblood."

As always, Hermione cringed at being called such an awful name. He saw the look of hurt on her face and smiled. "So, you are as cold as your name." She said and he nodded.

"That's the idea, all Malfoy's are the same." He said and Hermione noted a twinge of doubt in his movements.

"What time is it?" Hermione asked and he took out his wand. With a swish and a flick, and a whisper of words, the time was displayed in the air. Hermione marveled at how professional he had looked. It had taken barely any forethought, and the results were near perfect. He was good, almost as good as her, she added with a proud inner smile.

"Ten fifteen. Time to go." Without another word said, he placed his wand in his pocket and with a swish of his cloak behind him he left. His robes trailing after him like a shadow.

"Hell's got to bite at someone's heels." Said a cold, rasping voice from behind her and Hermione froze. She did not like the sound of that voice. Not at all. Slowly turning, Hermione felt her heart jump and slow at the same time. It was the Bloody Baron and he was looking very malicious in the dark hallway not even two hours before midnight.

"Sorry to have frightened you, M'dear. My humor sometimes borders on cruelty." He said, his voice slow and drawling with a hiss-like undertone. Hermione nodded and stepped away from the cold air that the ghost was sending her way.

"That's quite all right. I bid you good night Bloody Baron, I must go before I get another detention." She gave a small curtsey as she had been told to do when dealing with the Baron and fled down the hallway, his cruel laugh filling her thoughts.

Suddenly she collided with something very solid and she was slammed to the ground. She vaguely sensed someone underneath her, but her eyes closed and all she could see was darkness enveloping her.

Waking up in a warm bed with a throbbing headache, Hermione groaned. It was still dark and she could see immediately that this was not the girl's dormitories. It was the hospital wing and she suddenly remembered why she was here. Feeling the large bump on the back of her head, Hermione yelped in pain. It sent white streaks of pain through her skull.

"Ms. Granger? Thank goodness you're up. Had quite a run in with that Malfoy child. Honestly, you'd think they'd light some candles if students were going to be running around like mad." Madame Pompfrey smiled and Hermione felt slightly calm.

"Did Malfoy attack me?" She asked as she placed her legs over the side of the bed. Madame Pompfrey laughed and Hermione could only imagine what could be so funny.

"What?" Hermione asked. Her headache was starting to get the best of her and anger began coursing through her blood.

"Dear me, no! Mr. Malfoy did not attack you!" She paused to mellow out and looked at Hermione, a semi-serious expression on her face. "Mr. Malfoy broke your fall and helped tend to you before you were brought into my care." Her smile widened as she saw the look on Hermione's face. "He's not evil, child. He's a decent boy when it comes down to it, and I think this just goes to show, you can't judge a book by its binding."

Hermione smiled. Cover, she thought, its cover. "Yes, I suppose I will look at Malfoy in a different light." Hermione said almost choking on the words. Malfoy obviously had something on his agenda that helping her would have accomplished. He could have done anything to her and with that thought came the horrible paranoia. Anything…

Getting out of bed she checked her strength in her legs and moved around a bit. She felt normal, but feeling normal didn't exactly mean anything. She took a few test steps and when she finally decided she was fine at the moment she said her farewell to the kind nurse, after all she had been kind.

It was nearly morning and Hermione, knowing she would not be able to sleep, decided she would stay up and read in the common room for the rest of the night. It was warm when she entered and the fire in the grate was still burning from that evening.

It gave The room a soft glow as she entered and Hermione felt very uneasy despite her friendly surroundings. Malfoy could have cursed her to hell and back. Why hadn't he?

As she picked up her book and resumed from chapter eight, all thoughts of the world outside her book faded away into an invisible backdrop. The real world suddenly became fake and she fought to maintain consciousness. As the morning came, though, it started with a yawn, then a stretch, and then she was asleep, her book resting across her chest.


	4. The DADA Class From Hell, For Her Anyway

Chapter 4: DADA Class From Hell, For Her Anyway

Draco was jolted awake, his body drenched in cold sweat. Turning over he looked at his clock. Its face read 3:52. _Three fifty two…_ His mind was still fuzzy from sleep and as hard as he tried to grasp the dream that had woken him; it slipped further and further out of reach.

With a quiet sigh he rolled over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. It was dark, almost pitch black in the sixth year Slytherin dorms and cold too. It was for those reasons that Draco had the standard sheets as well as a charmed quilt. A Malfoy was never cold…

Suddenly disgusted, Draco threw the sheets off and the cold hit him like a brick, making his already damp skin rise in gooseflesh. A silent shiver passed through him, but Draco did not relent to the cold. Draco was tired and closed his eyes, letting his dorm fade along with the feeling of lurking doom that he often carried.

But _He_ was there when Draco closed his eyes. So was his father with his sneering face and cold words. But he-who-must-not-be-named was looking straight at him, his leering eyes burning through Draco like paper. Fear was an understatement he knew, but his father would not be happy with the word fear as it was.

Lucius didn't need to know that just that one single name sent cold shivers up his spine, or that the mere mention of the rising of the dark lord had sent him running to the dark corner under his desk. Draco knew he wasn't a coward when it came to simple things, but when _He_ was involved, Draco would shake and shiver like a puppy in the vet's office.

Such fear was weakness, and weakness caused death. Everything his father had taught him prepared him for life, for the preservation of the Malfoy name and blood. To preserve the most deeply rooted magical bloodline to ever exist was a huge responsibility that Draco was not sure he was ready for.

Ready or not, though, this was the Malfoy legacy –his legacy- and ready or not, it was his turn to grow up. Only sixteen, and his future was already being written in a history book. _One of darkness_, Draco thought, a pang of unease pulling at his chest.

The last thing Draco remembered as he slipped into an uneasy slumber was the green and black Slytherin shield on the wall across the room. The moonlight glinted across the silver snake giving it an eerie appearance, making its eyes glow a vicious red.

Darkness shrouded the trees and as Draco looked into the forbidden forest, a feeling of dread overcame him. He knew she was in there, he knew she was dead. He didn't want to find her but he owed her for everything she had done. Draco turned, a quiet ring filling the air. It started quiet, then echoed louder and louder until Draco couldn't stand it any more. It felt like it was splitting his skull in two. Running into the forest trying to escape the noise, Draco saw two red eyes before he was suddenly bowled over and two fangs rose above his chest. There was a loud whoosh as the silver fangs rushed to meet their target and-

Draco sat up quickly, surveying his surroundings. He was a heap of blankets, flesh, and bone on the cold floor and he looked around the dorm suspiciously. Realizing that his alarm was ringing, he reached up and knocked it off the table. He felt extraordinarily uncoordinated this morning and he wished he knew why.

Draco had dreamt many dreams the night before and he could only remember the eerie and foreshadowing feeling he had gotten. Recalling the feelings his dreams had given him, Draco's heart filled with such great longing and an even greater sense of loss that it felt as if his chest was being torn apart. His heartbeat accelerated and he ran a steadying hand through his soft blond hair as a shivering sigh swept past his lips.

Shuffling the overwhelming sad feelings he felt to the back of his mind as he was so used to doing gave Draco a sense of control and he felt almost childish again. He was almost seventeen and he was still unable to face the nightmares that plagued him in his sleep. Since his father told him of his fate, Draco hadn't had a peaceful night's sleep in months. There were too many forces to contend with, and such a small doorway for him to escape them all before it was too late.

Standing, Draco pulled his bed sheets off the floor and set them on his bed. he needed a shower and to go to breakfast, then class. As he stretched upward, his boxers slid down below his hips revealing a line of soft yellow hair running from his navel down and a yawn escaped his lips.

Suddenly everything from the night before came tumbling back into his mind and he cursed under his breath. He remembered detention with Granger, the lost points, and he definitely remembered afterwards when Granger had run straight into him then was lying on the floor unconscious. She had almost discovered the portrait hole to the Slytherin common room. She had gotten too close for any Slytherin's comfort.

For five minutes before he went and got the nurse he had struggled to find a memory charm, trying to figure out if she knew where the Slytherin common room was or not, but he had failed and eventually given up. It wasn't worth her waking up to find him bent over her, his wand pointed at her head, although that would have been a comical sight to see… From a different point of view anyway. He had no doubt the mudblood could defend herself.

With tired movements, Draco walked out of the boy's dorm, down the stairs, and into the common room showers. Stepping inside the small bathroom he let the warm, humid air sink in and a drowsy feeling enveloped him.

The closest shower was empty and Draco entered closing the door behind him. Reaching down to the nozzle attached to the wall, Draco chose the setting of heat and turned it on. Immediately cold water splashed down on his head and he was jolted awake as shivers forced their way up his spine. The water slowly turned warm and he reveled in the mixture of heat and cold that brought him to full awareness.

Eventually the shower turned hot and Draco took this time to wash his hair, then his body. Standing there, his arm hooked above him on the shower, he let the hot water wash over him in steaming torrents. One after the other they hit his naked body washing away one more nightmare.

Wrapping a towel around his softly defined waist Draco stepped out of the shower room. Suddenly he felt very soft, smooth arms wrap around his shoulders and he turned to look into the eyes of Pansy Parkinson, a fellow sixth year Slytherin, one he didn't care for much at the moment.

"Draco, it's so good to see you. You look handsome, but I wonder… What's under the towel?" Her voice was sly and she tried to reach for the position of the towel where he had tied a makeshift knot but he grabbed her hand and pulled away, a hard expression on his face. She was a very pretty, but very devious little Slytherin princess.

"Pansy, we broke up. We're through." Her expression was confused for a moment and backed off a bit. But Draco could tell she wasn't going to give up that easily. She had made the mistake of letting her desires slip to him in one of their many late night 'discussions.' Her one true desire was to bear the heir to the Malfoy treasury, which meant to be the rich wife of a rich, dark and powerful man. Something Draco wasn't ready to resign to.

"I don't get it…" She said, her voice trailing off into silence but Draco could read through her like a transparent cover. She was lying, no doubt, and she wanted to guilt him, but Malfoy's were never manipulated and they certainly never felt guilty.

"I don't believe that you don't get it." Draco said, his voice as dangerous as a cornered animal's. He wasn't one to be messed with and Pansy above all should have known that one thing. "We broke up last summer, you remember, you cried like a baby then tried to kill me. I sure remember," He said showing her his left wrist where a thin white scar trailed deadly close to the major blood vessel under his flesh.

Pansy looked momentarily uncomfortable then smiled. "Who's to say that we can't still have a little fun." She asked, her eyebrows rising suggestively. In times of the past Draco would have given in by now, but he could see right through her outer shell and into the cruel workings of her soul or lack thereof.

It was time to grow up, time to control the lust of teenage hormones, and start considering more worthwhile additions to his family. Pansy had been his first, but he was going to make damn sure she wasn't his last or the one he was to share his name with.

It was then that Draco decided to end the conversation. It was going nowhere and he wanted nothing more than to get dressed and go to class. As far as he was concerned she was a waste of valuable time.

"Pansy, you did what you did and its over. I have to keep my grades up if I'm going to inherit the fortune I'm in line for, so allow me to pass so that I may participate in my fist class." Pansy stepped away with a snarl and glared. She wasn't playing anymore, but Draco hadn't been playing in the beginning. "Goodbye." He said and began walking away.

"Diana was a better Malfoy than you will ever be and its your fault your father hates you." She whispered and Draco stopped, face flushing. How did she know about Diana? His pale cheeks were red with anger yet they seemed as cold as stone. He tried his hardest to portray no emotion, but he could feel the tears reach his eyes and he felt disgusted. Unworthy to be a Malfoy. Malfoy's didn't cry…

With a whip of his arm he cleared away the tears and began the ascent up the dormitory stairs so that he could change into school appropriate attire. Pansy's eyes were on him as he walked up the stares and he could tell she was waiting. For what he wasn't sure. She wanted him to be angry, he was, but she didn't know that. Never would, he would make sure of that.

Opening the door with the password he walked to his dresser and opened the top drawer. Inside lay his wand (a fifteen-inch alder wood with core of unicorn hair) upon a neatly folded pair of pants, a vest, and a white dress shirt, cleanly pressed, he noted.

After pulling on a pair of fresh boxers he finished dressing and lifted his wand from the drawer. It was light and he whispered the words, "_Identificus Malfoy."_ His wand glowed blue momentarily before he placed it safely in his robe pockets.

Suddenly the thought of Diana returned and a face came into his mind. It was unexplainable why she did it, he couldn't explain it any more than anyone else. But she was there in his mind, her endless sea green eyes, a know-it-all expression plastered on her face as it always was…

Diana… with a shrug, he let the thoughts fall away and cleared his mind completely. He would think about this later, he would mourn when he had time. This was the Malfoy way, the only way to stay sane…

"Hey, Draco." Said a deep voice from behind and Draco suppressed a startled jump and turned to face his two friends.

"Oi, Crabbe. Hey Goyle." His voice was flat but they smiled anyway. Draco walked towards them and they turned, as if they knew he was going to breakfast. He was... wasn't he? No…

As they left the portrait hole Draco found himself hurrying unknowingly towards the library. He needed to get away from this tiring routine that he found himself in and he wasn't surprised to see he had lost Crabbe and Goyle. They knew when he needed to be alone, everyone in Slytherin knew the dark prince needed time alone and if he didn't someone wasn't going home.

Walking down the familiar hallways of the school he saw many students, all were too busy to notice the Slytherin sixth year who was lost in a hallway of magic. This was one of those moments. One of those times where you don't know where you're going, or what you're looking for, but you know when you find it that its it. And that everything will be okay.

Draco knew he could probably wander for hours without finding it, or he even could assume it didn't exist at all. It was just a figment of his imagination. Something to distract him from his lonely and abstract thoughts.

With a jolt he realized something very solid was in front of him, pressed hard against his face. Stepping back he looked up and his heart stopped. It was a painting. As his eyes wandered over the portrait of a woman, he knew he had found what he was looking for.

The colors of the paint blended naturally into a beautiful accumulation of light and dark, pain and pleasure, beauty and ugliness, good and evil. It was a compendium of what every wizard wished to be. A little of everything and more.

The woman in the painting was radiant. She smiled, but her smile did not reach her eyes, only to her cheeks, which gave her a sad almost distraught appearance. Her eyes were a dark almost chocolate brown and though not cold they suggested much loss. The nose was turned slightly to the right and her pose suggested a suppressed intelligence the woman may have possessed.

The painter had used real paint, which he thought only added to the beauty of it. The painter was a muggle, no doubt. Draco could tell due to the lack of imagination and individual style. Also, the picture didn't move.

Maybe that is what captured him so much that he was unable to react when he was knocked off his feet by a force so great he flipped halfway before landing painfully on his back with a loud crack. He didn't even have time to cry out before warm darkness seeped into his vision, totally severing his ties to the real world. All in a matter of seconds he was unable to move.

"Mr. Malfoy." Said a sharp voice and Draco's eyelids fluttered before they fell shut again. He didn't have enough energy to life his eyelids let alone to reply. "Mr. Malfoy, we need to know what happened, and what you were doing in that hallway." With a sudden leap of nausea Draco realized who it was.

"Professor McGonagal?" He sat up quickly and immediately regretted it. He vomited all over the hospital bed sheets and himself. A sour smell filled the room and he couldn't stop throwing up. He slipped into convulsions and he watched as Madame Pomfrey tried to force a strange silver liquid down his throat. Soon darkness was upon him again.

Draco opened his eyes. This had to be the first time in his whole Hogwarts career that he had been in the hospital wing with a legitimate ailment and the surprise of this realization made him smile. This was going to be a good year.

Slipping out of the hospital bed he ventured a look at the clock then dressed. He still had time to make it to the second class of the day. Potions then DADA. He had never missed a potion's class in all his years at Hogwarts and Snape needed him to show those Gryffindors which house truly ruled them all.

Whatever he needed to do, now was his time to make an entrance. Breakfast was out of the question so he hurried from the hospital wing, straight to the sixth year Slytherin dormitories to grab his school things, then on to potions. There Snape awaited him with a large sadistic grin.

"Good class planned then?" Draco asked and Snape's eyes seemed to glitter maliciously, as if the contempt he felt could not be measured.

"The best, Mr. Malfoy. Now sit and join us." He paused and looked distastefully at the Gryffindor half of the room. "We are on page three twenty seven, you may be allotted a greater amount of time to assemble your potion due to your tardiness. I don't think you'll need it though, today's class isn't up to speed as I would expect from a sixth year class of _Gryffindors_. Dumbledore's gift to the wizarding world and so on…"

Snape continued to mutter under his breath and Draco smirked. It was quite amusing to see Professor this angry. He had, after all miss the D.A.D.A teaching job for the sixth eligible year in a row. Draco moved between Crabbe and Goyle and put is things together with precision no one else seemed to possess. He opened his book and before five minutes was up he had completed his potion.

He received appreciated glares from Granger, Potter, _and_ Weasley, surprisingly enough. He seemed unusually afraid of Slytherins these days and Draco didn't pretend not to know why. His father, Arthur, had been attacked by death eaters over the summer and their house had been graffitied with fouls names for muggle lovers. Draco knew every detail because he had been there.

He may not have taken a wand to their doings, but he had watched, and liked it none the less as they spun Mr. Weasley on his head like a break-dancer from hell. He smiled at the thought as he waited patiently for the rest of the class to finish.

As Snape walked around the room observing the potions and randomly testing them he stopped in front of a very ruffled looking mudblood with the last name Granger.

"I see you have acquired no new skills over your summer, Ms. Granger. Five points from Gryffindor, it was obvious none of you were paying attention when I said the potion should be a golden yellow _after_ it had simmered for no less than twenty-five minutes." He said, his drawling voice filled with loathing.

"But professor," Harry protested. "It _is_ a golden yellow, as are Ron's and mine." He said.

"All right then, make it ten more." The Gryffindors all sighed and Draco looked down at his own cauldron that was the very definition of golden yellow and raised his hand.

"Professor, professor." He said with feigned excitement.

"Yes Mr. Malfoy?" Snape asked.

"Can you check mine?" Draco asked and Snape smiled.

"Of course. As the potion's master I should check every student's progress the same…"

And the class continued like this until the end. Draco left the potions classroom greatly uplifted and was pleased to see the loathing expressions on the Gryffindor's faces as he pushed his way to the front.

He entered the great hall for lunch and was a bit bothered to see that Crabbe and Goyle were not stuffing their faces liked usual. In fact, they weren't at the Slytherin table at all, a very odd occurrence considering eating was their preferred religion.

But Draco told himself not to worry as he sat down. Who cared if he had to eat one meal alone. But who said he couldn't sit with other Slytherins? He had plenty of alliances within his house.

He sat next to a group of girl Slytherins who looked over at him bashfully and he grinned just for them. As he looked up and down the table he realized that half of these people he didn't even know were in Slytherin. _Boy, _he thought as he filled his plate with food, _Hanging out with Crabbe and Goyle I've missed a lot. _

The bell rang when he had just finished his dessert and he stood. "Damn!" He hissed as he realized he had left his backpack in the potions classroom.

Draco sprinted between a crowd of people trying to navigate the hallways without being crushed into walls but he failed. Twice he found himself either pressed in between people he didn't know or against a very rough wall that did not feel comfortable at all against his arm.

He entered Snape's classroom that happened to be empty and looked around. Spotting his backpack he ran across the room and grabbed it. He was going to be late. But as he sprinted towards the door he saw the same piece of parchment lying on Professor Snape's desk. Completely unguarded.

He looked away and walked calmly to the door but his curiosity got the best of him and he found himself at Snape's desk reading something only meant for another to read.

"The other followers are suspicious of my late return to the circle though I gave the perfect excuse. Voldemort knows that I am on the inside of the school and has asked me to-" Draco heard a loud popping noise that he recognized as someone apparating and he jolted out of the room. He ran through the corridors not once looking back and entered the DADA classroom breathless.

He knew he had to be late but the whole class was chatting and there was no Mrs. Knock in the room. Granger, Potty, and Weasel were in the back in deep discussion about something hushed, as if it was important, and Draco scoffed.

He would have said something clever but he had too much on his mind. He had known Snape was a Death Eater but who was that letter to and why would he share so much confidential information. Some witches and wizards did not even know of the great lord's return to the mortal realm.

Sitting at the table that Crabbe and Goyle sat at Draco kept to himself. Until he found out more about what Snape was up to he was not about to share any information with another person.

Suddenly the lights went out and Draco pulled out his wand. After a second more of darkness he decided to be safe. "_Lumos,_" he muttered and a small ball of light lit the end of his wand. His wasn't the only one on though, the mudblood, weasel and Potty had done the same and this irked him for obvious reasons.

A quiet shadow drifted into the room and Draco tensed. He looked over and saw that Granger seemed to be ready for defense, she was almost standing and her hand gripped her wand so tight it made her knuckles go white. Her bushy brown hair hung over the nape of her neck and her cheeks were slightly tinted pink.

Draco felt like laughing. She looked so serious, he didn't think he had ever seen her like this. He had seen her glare, seen her laugh, and seen her concentrate, but this was quite new and he realized with a pang of uneasiness that she knew what she was doing.

Avoiding the sudden twinge of attraction, Draco pointed his wand at the candles on the walls and he whispered, "_Luminescence noctourni."_ The candles lit themselves and the room was suddenly bright. The whole class seemed to hold their breath as the figure reached up to remove its hood. When the hood was removed Draco found himself slightly disappointed.

This wasn't their teacher. Draco watched out of the corner of his eyes as Granger huffed and sat down hard in her chair. This was quite odd. They had met the defense against the dark arts teacher just the night before and this certainly was not the Mrs. Knock that they had met.

At the front of their classroom stood a witch cloaked in mauve robes and who dawned a tall emerald hat. The two other Gryffindors could be heard complaining about their new teacher's terrible fashion sense and Draco guffawed. That was the least of their problems.

"I see some of you did not very much like my joke?" She stated half asking and half knowing. Draco glared and he assumed Granger was doing the same. Granger had most likely been fearful for Potty's life, not her own. "I apologize for that, but I thought this was an ideal way to begin our new year. This is a class in which first instincts should be your last. I am Alias Dark and I have come a long ways to teach the future of our world. It is a dark time to send our children away from home…"

He turned his head towards Granger and she stared back, giving him a questioning look. Granger's hand flew into the air like a whip and Alias seemed not to notice for the longest time. "Professor Alias, where is Mrs. Knock?" Hermione called out in a small voice and the teacher stopped talking and gave her a look that was not at all pleased.

"Five points from Gryffindor for speaking out of turn." She said. She walked back to the center of the room then walked up the row to Hermione's, Potty's, and Weasel's table.

"I do not know the reason why you have decided to disrupt this class miss-"

"Granger." Hermione said curtly meeting Alias' glare with a very special one of her own.

"Granger. I don't know if this Knock was a teacher at Hogwarts previously or if she is a creation of your imagination but I would like you to, in the future, keep these disruptive and stupid questions to yourself." Alias eyed Hermione with great dislike and for the first time in his whole Hogwarts' life, he felt sorry for the Gryffindors.

It was obvious that she was more of the Slytherin type now that Draco looked closer. She was pale and had dark hair. Her eyes were dark and shadowed heavily. But then something happened that contradicted everything he had just discovered.

"Mr. Potter," She began and it seemed as though Potty had cringed. He was ready for the Snape treatment as was Draco although he doubted they both felt the same about it. "I would like to say that I am most delighted to see you are still alive. Not many people survive when they are in the path of Voldemort's" –cringes around the classroom- "ambition." Draco felt disappointment spread through him as she offered Potter a soft smile of sympathy mingled with admiration.

Potter looked down at his hands and Alias walked to the front of the class again. "I've taken roll already and it seems as if one of our company was late." She spoke very slowly and Draco felt his stomach constrict. There was no way she could know that he had been late. "Draco Malfoy would you please stand. You have volunteered to assist me in our first lesson."

Draco hesitantly stood and as he looked around all eyes but three pairs were on him. "Come on up, Draco. Don't be shy." He pushed his chair in and walked slowly down the center row to the front of the classroom.

"I have been told by Dumbledore that you have had a brief introduction to the wonderful art of dueling." Alias said as she sized Draco up. She concentrated very hard and the class gasped as she began to morph into another shape completely unlike her former self.

Her hair turned bleach blond and she grew several inches until her height was level with Draco's. Her facial features changed and became an exact image of Draco's but with much softer, more feminine features. Her hair had not stopped growing and now it was several inches below her waist. Then, everything stopped. Everyone held their breath as they looked at Draco then at his sister.

"Hold out your arm." She said quickly and Draco hesitated. "Do it unless you want to cost your house the fifty points I'll take for your tardiness." Draco pulled up his sleeve, a scowl on his face, and held it out towards her. He noted that her voice had changed, it was higher and more like a child's.

Alias touched his pale arm and Draco felt a chill so cold spread through him that he shivered involuntarily. It spread from his arm to his heart, which slowed dangerously, then to his brain.

It was as if she was picking through his thoughts and he was forced to relive the memories she touched. She sighed loudly and released him. Draco stumbled back and the class continued watching with apt attention.

Draco felt so drained he could barely lift his arm to catch himself as he stumbled forward, teetering dangerously.

"_Recovero."_ Alias whispered and Draco recovered immediately. The warmth returned to his limbs and he felt the strength rebuild and his passiveness turned to anger.

"What are you playing at?" He demanded loudly but Alias just smiled.

"Ready yourself for a duel Mr. Malfoy." She said, her voice sounded dangerous but adolescent at the same time but Draco found himself obeying.

"One, two, three-" A green spell shot from the end of Draco's wand and Alias' wand mimicked him. The spell sputtered and died. Draco looked shocked and Alias took advantage of his loss of concentration. "E_xpelliarmus."_ Draco's wand was wrenched from his hand and Alias snatched it from the air, pointing both wands in his direction.

Draco crossed his arms over his chest and glared sullenly. Alias was spinning his wand between her fingers and laughing. And as she did this she morphed into her former self. She tossed his wand back at him and he caught it swiftly.

"You may sit back down." She said and he did. "We will have to work on dueling. Most honorable wizards will challenge you to a duel but sadly, I must also prepare you for those scoundrels who point their wand at you back." Her voice took on a cold edge and Draco began scribbling notes.

"What I did was something very few wizards can do. I morphed into the twin of Draco there and absorbed his memory and talents. I knew exactly what he was going to do because as Draco thought it, I did as well. This is something you may have to face and as frightful as that thought is you must prepare." She paused looking around the room.

"I will not presume to try and teach you the skills to transform at will as I did because it is not possible. Does anyone know what kind of wizard may change their appearance at will?"

Draco looked around and saw the only two hands raised were mudblood Granger and Potty's.

"Mr. Potter." She said and Hermione huffed loudly.

"A morphagus, professor." Said Harry with a nod.

Alias was looking at him skeptically for a moment before speaking. "Tell me Mr. Potter, how did you come across such a little tid bit of information."

"I met a morphagus last summer." He said quietly and Draco could have cursed him then. He looked so innocent instead of the truly arrogant prat he was behind everyone's back. Even that mudblood believed that he was all self-sacrificing and saint-like. Draco could have been sick just then but he shrugged the feeling and returned his attention back to the class.

"Miss Granger, why are you writing? I am trying to teach a lesson and you are not paying attention?" Alias asked. Draco could have laughed. He knew that Granger was writing notes.

"I was writing-"

"That is clear, ten points from Gryffindor and I would like you to stay after class. In fact, I want you to step outside for a moment and take your time in deciding whether or not you want to learn anything in my classroom or write notes to your friends whilst I am trying to inform you of ways to defend yourself against the dark arts."

"But-"

"Go!" Alias shouted and Granger jumped. It was much worse than Draco thought possible. Most teachers liked the mudblood… After fifteen more minutes of lecturing the bell rang and they all packed up and left.

As Draco exited the classroom he saw Granger leaned up against the wall crying. He was about to say something cruel but to his disappointment she was joined by Potty and Weasel. This was probably the time in which Weasel would make his move and Draco scowled, deciding he would rather not witness it.

Now that lessons were done for the day, Draco made his way to the Slytherin common room in the dungeons. As he walked he heard a song in his head. _Memories consume, like opening a wound I'm picking me apart again. You all assume I'm safe here in my room…_


	5. Repercussions of the Red and Gold

Chapter 5: Repercussions of the Red and Gold 

"Oh, that evil woman!" Hermione shouted and Ron cringed. Harry laughed but it quickly turned to a cough as Hermione gave him an evil look of her own.

"It could have been worse…" Ron whispered and Hermione laughed.

"How do you suppose that?" 

"All the Gryffindor's could have been put in the hall but it seems that she just doesn't like y-"

"Me, doesn't like me." She nodded and sighed. "Let's go and see Hagrid." She suggested and the other two nodded.

As they walked through the large front doors Hermione began talking very fast. "Didn't anyone else notice that that woman was not the witch at the feast? Don't they know that there was no Alias Dark until today? Draco and I had det-"

"Wait, since when have you e_ver_ called that git by his first name, Hermione?" Ron asked and she shrugged.

"I didn't even think about it but honestly, Ron, they're not going to put me in Azkaban for calling a death eater's son by his first name." She replied hastily wondering why it was such a big deal.

"How do you know if he's just a death eater's son and not one himself?" Harry asked and Hermione sighed loudly.

"I don't, Harry. It just seems highly unlikely that Dr- Malfoy can juggle muggle torture, school, and learning dark spells _and_-" But she stopped talking and paused. "But besides that, it has _nothing to do with_ what I wanted to talk to you two about!" She exclaimed as they reached Hagrid's hut.

"It'll have to wait then, I guess." Hermione said and Harry nodded in agreement. All three of them knocked on the door simultaneously and Hagrid opened the door, a grin spreading across his face as he saw them.

"Come in, come in you three!" He said, his booming voice echoing through the grounds. After he had sat all of them down and poured some tea he joined them at his table that was roughly the size of a whole tree trunk.

"How ya' been Harry?" He asked and Harry looked down as he always did when questioned about himself.

"I'm okay." He said slowly and Hagrid patted him on the shoulder three times and Hermione cringed. It looked as if he had hit Harry hard enough to break his shoulder.

"Brave boy, always 'ave been." Hagrid said pridefully. Hagrid frowned suddenly and Hermione looked at Ron who shrugged.

"What's the matter?" Hermione asked quietly.

"Nothin' jus' worried 'bout Buckbeak. With Sirius gone"-Harry, Hermione, Ron cringed- "There'll be no one lookin' after him." As if he just realized what he had said Hagrid covered his mouth with his large hand.

"Do they know where he is? Buckbeak I mean," Harry corrected himself as they all looked at him, horrified expressions on their faces. "I know Sirius's he's dead." Harry said angrily. "I'm not going to pretend that he isn't so you can all just stop trying to protect me from the truth."

Ron patted him on the back and Harry jerked away. Hermione could see that he was trying so hard not to feel what he felt. "Harry, it's all right to talk about it. We're your friends, through thick and thin, mate." Ron said and Harry gave them both a weak smile.

Harry looked at them, looked down and braced himself as if he was about to say something crazy. "But I don't think Sirius is dead." Harry said quickly. "I mean… the spell he was hit with wasn't the Adavra Kadavra and… well, who is to say what's beyond that veil thing." He paused and looked at each one of their faces. Hagrid was looking at him as if he were a very young child telling a crazy story about bears in the house who wrote all over his stuff and Hermione and Ron looked doubtful. "I don't _feel_ like he's dead." Harry whispered in a last attempt to plead his insane case.

"Harry, Sirius fell through the veil, we haven't seen or heard from him since…" Ron said slowly.

"I know that! But… maybe he needs help getting out, maybe he's only trapped. I just can't give up, he's all I have." Hermione looked away as her eyes filled with tears.

"We know Sirius meant a lot to you. He went to school with your father and all, but what you said isn't true. You have us. You have Dumbledore, you have Hermione, you have Hagrid, me, and you have Sirius' memory." Harry nodded but Hermione could tell he didn't feel as though it was good enough.

"We had better go, it's getting dark outside." Hermione spoke quietly and Hagrid nodded.

"I have some goundskeepin' ter do myself." He said as he stood to his full height of over eight feet tall. "Watch yerself Harry, and don't go doin' nothin' unsafe, ye hear? Don' go lookin' fer ghosts."

Harry rolled his eyes when Hagrid turned but agreed. "Sirius isn't a ghost, he's my godfather." Harry said as they made their way over the grounds and back to the castle.

"Look Harry, Hagrid's right. We can look into everything we can about the ministry of magic and everything in that department of mysteries, but before we do anything like last year we _must consult Dumbledore_."

Hermione could tell Harry had thought she was going to say something very different and said, "Thanks Hermione, I appreciate it."

Once up in Gryffindor tower Harry went straight up to the boy's dormitory. "I have some homework to do." Ron called up the stairs and Harry waved goodnight before disappearing into the sixth year dormitories.

"Hey, Hermione, can you help me with my potion's homework? I couldn't find anything on the antiveritaserum solution except that it makes you dishonest…" Hermione heard his voice trail off when he saw that she already had her potion's book out and turned to the right page.

Hermione had the feeling he wanted to talk to her but instead Ron just sat silently at the table and began writing his essay. Halfway through Hermione saw Ron look up at her but she didn't look up.

"Hermione…" He said slowly and Hermione put down her pen and met his stare. This is what she had been waiting for, dreading. She wouldn't say no, but she couldn't say yes without feeling guilty about Krum who wrote to her weekly.

"Yes, Ron." She replied.

He cleared his throat and began slowly. "The weather was nice today, eh?" He asked and Hermione smiled. He looked so hot and bothered that she couldn't help but laugh. "What?" He asked and she could tell he was slightly irritated.

"Just spit it out." She said and he gulped.

"I wanted to know if you would, erm, like to be my… wouldliketobemygirlfriend." He looked away and stared hard down at his book. So hard in fact that had he looked any harder she could imagine him burning a hole right through it.

After a minute of silence Hermione saw Ron turn red. "Oh well, I understand. We are good friends after all and well, I should go to bed, I'm drained." Ron stood and Hermione grabbed his sleeve. "What?" He asked and Hermione felt her throat close as she looked at the look on his face. He was so hurt and she hadn't even answered his question yet.

"Yes." She said breathlessly and suddenly she didn't care that Krum existed at all. Ron was here and he was real. His mouth twisted into a grin and he met her eyes, searching for some sign.

"Really?" He asked and she nodded. He sat back down at the table and he looked too excited to contain himself. Hermione was feeling quite glad herself. He would be her first boyfriend since Krum had left to go back to Bulgaria and she wasn't even sure if he counted.

Looking at Ron, Hermione felt a pang of something she recognized as doubt. But, brushing it aside she helped him finish his homework and did her own. The common room slowly emptied and eventually it was just Ron and Hermione and a few other Gryffindors either doing their homework or speaking in hushed tones. It was almost eight thirty and soon she would have to leave for her second and last detention.

"I have to go." Hermione said at five minutes until eight thirty and she stood. Ron looked up from his essay, a surprised look on his face.

"Where're you going?" He asked.

"Detention, remember?" Hermione answered shortly. "I just hope Malfoy doesn't send me to the hospital wing this time." She said before thinking.

"You went to the hospital wing? What'd he do and why's he not expelled?" He asked his ears turning slightly pink.

"I'm not sure what happened. All I remember is… well, the detention and waking up in the hospital wing." She said as she slapped herself inwardly for saying anything at all. "Madame Pompfrey told me he was the one who brought me to the hospital wing and doesn't it seem-"

"A little odd." Ron finished.

"Look Ron, don't do anything that'll lose us points. It's fine… I- I took care of it already." She knew that Ron had been itching for a way to get Malfoy back for what had happened to his father. "I have to go." Hermione repeated when he didn't respond. "Promise me." She pleaded.

Ron looked up at her and shook his head. "I can't- he can't get away with everything he does. Everything'll be fine, Hermione. Go serve your detention and be careful."

Hermione threw her hands up in surrender and left in a huff. Ron was being ridiculously irrational about the whole thing. Everyone who did that to his father had been apprehended or would be. It was the ministry's job and he was going to get not only himself, but their whole house into trouble, not to mention he was going to need help for whatever he was planning, if he was planning at all, and that meant Harry getting involved.

Although Hermione's rational side had a point so did her emotional side. If her father had been attacked and put up for display like they had found Arthur she was not sure how she would feel about the son of one of the 'not-yet-apprehended' death eaters and for all they knew he had been there watching or joining in.

As she walked through the corridors a new fear flickered in her chest. This was her second detention but with a new teacher. Would the one before it count and more importantly, what had happened to the DADA teacher they had met. The more she thought about it, the weirder it got until finally she let it go, tired of being confused.

Entering the classroom a completely different picture from the night before met her eyes. Crabbe and Goyle were seated on both sides of Malfoy and all three of them looked as if they had just stopped talking as she entered the room.

Hermione was suddenly dreading tonight's detention. The teacher didn't like her and the three Slytherins sitting silently and angelically at the front of the class were not exactly boosting her morale. She knew they had something planned and that knowledge had an affect on her that she would never admit to.

As she sat at a desk near the back she waited patiently for the teacher. After five minutes the Slytherins stood and Draco said, "Oh well, guess it's canceled then." Crabbe and Goyle followed him to the door and Hermione stood.

"What're you guys doing? She 's only a few minutes late and you're going to get us into trouble." She said and they stopped, Draco turned slowly.

"No, she's ten minutes late, _we're _leaving, and _you're _going to get into trouble all by yourself for existing, you filthy little mudblood." Draco said with a smirk and Crabbe and Goyle laughed. "You don't have to leave if you don't want to, but personally, I don't want to wait in this filthy room for our filthy morphagus teacher."

"Is there any kind of wizard you _do_ like, Malfoy, that doesn't march in the ranks of Lord Voldemort and carry the brand of the death eaters?" Said a very cold voice from behind them.

"Well if it isn't little weaselby." Draco said as he turned to face Ron. Draco nudged Crabbe and Goyle to step back and they did as they were told. "I reckon Weasley wants to fight me." He snarled as he removed his cloak revealing a form-fitting green vest with a nicely pressed dress shirt underneath it. The Slytherin crest was embroidered over his right breast with the highest detail and skill and Hermione marveled at his disgusting arrogance.

"Not just me Malfoy…" Ron said and Hermione gasped as Harry stepped from behind followed by Neville, Collin Creevey and finally Ginny. Hermione could swear that if Fred and George had still been at school she would be seeing them there as well.

"I see." Draco said with a nonchalant wave of his hand that was borderline disrespectful. Crabbe and Goyle were looking to Draco for orders but Draco gave them none. It seemed to Hermione that he was hell-bent on fighting this one by himself.

"Well, are we going to fight in here? It might endanger your pretty little mudblood and I'm sure Potty wouldn't want that…" Draco snarled suggestively and Hermione stumbled forward shouting insults as she took each step.

"Back off Hermione." Harry said. His face held an expression of such seriousness that Hermione knew they had planned something dangerous for this fight.

"Pleas don't do this," She said. "Professor Dark might be here any time." Hermione pleaded but Ron shook his head slowly.

"Miss Dark is preoccupied with other things at the moment." Ginny said and Hermione searched her face. She should have realized that despite Ginny's kind disposition she was only human, just like Ron, and as two humans that suffered against the same injustice they both felt the same hatred towards Malfoy. At first she had wondered what Ginny was doing here but now that she knew, it all made sense.

"Neville…" She began. But even though his wrist was slightly shaking the look of determination on his face was too real to underestimate. Looking upon the faces of all the Gryffindors there for her defense she realized it was not for her. It was for their families, their friends, their peers.

Harry had lost both his parents and his godfather to death eaters closely related to Draco, Ron and Ginny's father had been tortured for what the ministry disclosed as days, Neville's parents had been driven insane by death eaters through cruel means of torture, and Collin's brother had been killed over the summer by a group of death eaters who had been bent on killing a muggle born the night of the twenty-fourth of July, Collin's birthday.

"I'll be joining you then." She said as she took her wand from the folds of her robes.

"This is not your fight." Ron and Ginny said at the same time but Hermione continued her walk towards the door.

"Like hell it isn't." She said. "You are all my friends and friends stand by one another." Hermione brandished her wand at Crabbe and Goyle and they moved aside allowing her to walk beyond them.

Hermione felt herself jerked backwards and her wand flew from her hand as Draco grabbed her by the hair and pulled her against his chest. "You're a very unusual mudblood." Draco said cruelly. "When asked to fight you refuse but when asked to keep your filthy nose out of things you don't understand you join in." He said slowly. "Very odd, don't you think Weasley. You'd think with your blood and your half a brain you could make your girlfriend a bit more obedient."

Draco pushed his wand against her temple dangerously and smirked. "You know what, Weaselby? Do you know how amusing it was to see your father dangling upside down, his arms flailing about while he screamed in pain? He screamed like a woman when my father got done with him and afterwards, you know what he did?" Draco paused enjoying the look of anguished horror on both Ginny's and Ron's faces. "He cried. He sobbed like a woman."

Ron stepped forward and Draco threw Hermione to the side, pulling out his wand almost gracefully. "I'd rather fight in the hall if you know what I mean. More room, eh?" But at that point no one was listening. Words were being screamed and curses and spells were flying every which way, colors bursting from wands like there was no tomorrow.

Hermione found herself in the middle of the fray soon enough and after five minutes of combat she was sporting a complementary bloody lip from Goyle and a number of small cuts from being pushed around by Crabbe who seemed to find her an amusing object to play with until that is, she had cursed his face so badly that it was unrecognizable.

But as the fight carried on, Hermione was hit with one spell too many and everything went silent as she fell to the floor with a thud of flesh and bones. The last thing she saw was Ginny's face above her and then darkness… comfortable, easy, worriless silence.

Hermione woke with a killer headache only to realize she was lying on cold floor. As she sat up she saw that the fight was over. Draco and Harry were the only ones standing. Ron looked dazed, Ginny was unconscious, Neville was twitching and laughing on the floor and Collin… Where was Collin?

Hermione looked all around the large hallway and her eyes fell upon a horror she wish she hadn't seen. Collin was lying on the floor a few feet away, a crumpled pile of body and cloak.

Hermione got onto her knees and crawled across the floor, reaching out for him. As she neared she slipped in something wet. Looking down she saw that it was blood. Collin was lying in a puddle of blood. _His_ blood.

Acting on impulse Hermione placed her hand right above Collin's mouth to see if he was breathing. She let out a strangled cry. "Harry, Collin's not breathing!" She shouted and Harry looked away from Draco who also looked their way.

Both Harry and Draco ran across the hall. "Get away, this is all your fault!" Hermione yelled at Draco so loud that she could feel her vocal chords scratch. "And _YOU!_" She shouted in Harry's direction making him jump. "If you could have let it go, dissuaded Ron or at least tried, Collin wouldn't have been here!" Draco was walking away and Hermione rounded back on him. "Don't you leave!" She shouted.

"He's your own kind. Slytherins help Slytherins, those are the rules." Draco said as he continued walking but Hermione could tell he really wasn't all that worried about Crabbe or Goyle.

"Fine Malfoy, walk away like you do everything! Take the easy way out, it seems like it's the only thing you _can_ do properly." Hermione whispered as she looked at Collin.

Draco turned slowly and glared. "I don't see any of you over here helping Slytherins, do I?" His voice was low and menacing and Hermione realized he was bleeding freely from his nose.

"They haven't stopped breathing. Please! I don't know how to do this, I just don't know!" And Hermione snapped. They heard it, she knew, but she didn't care. She stood slowly and brushed off her robes.

Turning away from Harry and Draco, from young Collin, she made her way through the corridor and up the staircases towards Gryffindor tower. It was too much to handle. She knew she should have gotten a teacher but at the moment her body seemed bent on fainting. And there was little she could to stop it, nothing actually. Her vision faded just outside the portrait hole. The fat lady's cries for help were the last thing she heard.


	6. Sly Ideas from the Dragon in the House

Chapter 6: Sly Ideas from the Dragon in the House 

Draco could have sworn the next few hours after Granger left were hell. It had taken him over ten minutes to bring the Gryffindor back to life by resuscitation and Potter had been absolutely no help. He just sat there open-mouthed looking guilty.

But in the end they had cleaned up their mess and it was an unspoken but known thing that no one would speak a word of the battle that had taken place on the first floor corridor. Draco was quite sure no one would want the story of him single-handedly fighting off five Gryffindors with very little aid from his idiot friends and his saving the small one from near death, circulating around school. But he had less to gain than even they thought. It would ruin his image as a Slytherin _and_ as a Malfoy if anyone else found out about his heroism, though he would not call it even that.

Draco thought of it as a means to an end and the Gryffindors must have known when they started this whole mess that he was going to pay them back… in excess. And if they didn't? It wasn't his fault.

Draco leaned his head back against the back of his four-poster and sighed. He was so tired but he couldn't sleep. Something was bothering him, something that would not go away.

Could it have been the fact that he found out where Crabbe and Goyle had been the day before? No, he had always known they were destined to become death eaters. Draco was unaware that the dark mark could be distributed to students, underage students at that but he had no doubt the Dark Lord had his reasons.

Could that be it? Was Voldemort haunting him once again? But again the answer was no. Draco had gotten used to the fact that Voldemort would always be a part of his life a long time ago.

And then Draco reached the point of his memory of the past day's events that bothered him the most. Mudblood Granger had yelled as she had never yelled before, he was sure. And it wasn't only at him, this time she had screamed at her beloved Potter as well and if Draco didn't know any better it had all been worse for Potter.

But then again, it was Potter's fault that all this happened in the first place. He was born and then survived. It was a fact that he would suffer but no one said he was aloud to fight back. Let alone drag four other Gryffindors down with him.

And then there was Weasley, tragically brave Weasley who had the guts to pull a wand on one of the darkest wizards of Voldemort's company's son. That had been a mistake although Draco himself could hardly blame him. Draco's words had been aimed to hurt and they had fulfilled their purpose on a grand scale.

For a second, Draco even doubted their necessity but that was over and done with before he had blinked again. The Gryffindor's deserved what they got. They were all the same, every single one of them. They sat there on their pedestals with their lions on their chests judging everyone else but looking no closer at one another than a stranger would.

At least Slytherins observed and calculated their own, they knew what everyone else was capable of and that in itself was a great advantage. And despite popular belief, not every Slytherin was dark and evil, destined to become great, muggle-hating death eaters. That was the destiny of a select few, Draco himself included.

Draco disliked the fact that he had no say whatsoever in his career path but nonetheless it was his path more than anything else he _could_ do. It was in his blood, his history, every fiber of his being had been bred for this, for perfection.

He was smart, good at everything he tried, genuinely talented in all areas of magic, and knowledgeable on everything dark he needed to know, and finally, he was good-looking, not a very important piece but a plus anyway.

As Draco thought of his talents he also thought of his flaws. He was selfish, a definitive Slytherin quality, was socially inept, anyone who wanted to be successful in the higher wizarding community needed to kiss-up to him, and finally, he was close-minded. Muggles were disgusting, wizards who liked muggles and married them were more disgusting, and the offspring of one of those unnatural pairings were _the most disgusting._ Tainted blood was no longer politically correct but to Draco it was dogma. Integrated into every aspect of his life since birth, brainwashed one could say.

Draco looked at the clock on his bedside table. "Shouldn't you be asleep?" Asked the woman in the backdrop of the clock. "'S nearly twelve-thirty, don't you have classes tomorrow?"

" Sod off." He said and rolled over. So it wasn't that late at all. He still had a very good shot at getting eight or nine hours of sleep.

Closing his eyes he tried very hard to think of things that would put him to sleep and one of those, Collin Creevey's head settled in a puddle of blood, was not one of them. But as he gradually became drowsy an image stuck in his mind. It was not his choice of course but she was there, nonetheless.

Diana swam before his eyes like a dream integrated into a nightmare one did not wish to relive. But along with the face came memories, the best of Draco's life. When he had been young and his mother more able to protect him from his father's ambition.

Draco could hear her voice almost as if she were there with him and as he lay there curled into a ball underneath his thin blankets he wished she were there. He felt alone all of the sudden, even though he was surrounded by at least thirteen other sleeping bodies.

But sleep was gaining on him, chasing him until he was too tired to fight it any longer. There was too much to think about, too much to remember in one night.

And he regretted it when sleep fell over him like a veil of dark silence. It would be the kind of dreamless, fatigue-induced sleep brought on by either medication or the brain's lack of will to think while the rest of the body surrendered to relaxation.

So Draco wandered into what seemed like the opportunity of sleep he had been missing since he was twelve.

Two hours later he woke drenched in sweat. Suddenly the room was closing in on him, sucking the air from his lungs and he forced himself to breathe slowly, calming himself.

Draco sat up and swung his legs over the edge of his four-poster angrily. It was the same dream, the same goddamn dream he couldn't get out of his head. Opening his hand, he stared at it, wondering why he was being plagued with such ominous dreams. "God damn!" He cursed under his breath as he hit himself with his open palm. Twice more he hit himself, wistfully hoping that it would make the ache in his head stop.

"Draco." Called a cold voice from the deep recesses of the shadows and Draco looked all around the dormitory only to find silence and the same black emptiness it always held.

"It's not over…" He whispered to himself. This was just more of the same dream, more of the same sick fear he felt constrict his stomach whenever he imagined that beast in the forest.

"Draco…" Now Draco knew it wasn't a dream. Someone was calling his name. And as Draco realized this, one thought shot through his mind. Who the hell?

"What the hell do you want?" He said rather loudly.

"We need your help…" Came the whisper now accompanied by many other voices.

"We? Who are you?" He asked pushing the covers off of him and to the side. When there was no answer he merely rubbed his eyes and sighed. Ever since that first detention he had been hearing things. Short whispers of wind that mussed his hair as he walked through the corridors, the tapping of feet behind him when he was in a deserted hallway.

Draco stood and stretched his arms high above his head. He pulled his boxers up just a little higher so that they covered the downy soft trail of hair from his navel and gave a loud but muffled yawn. He ran a hand through his golden hair and placed his hands over his face.

It was a long time till morning and Draco wasn't about to waste it by sitting around in the dormitory waiting for the nightmare or the voices to come back. He was going to sit around in the common room waiting for the nightmare or the voices to come back. There at least he felt warm.

Giving another yawn, Draco walked to the dormitory door but stopped dead. He wasn't about to go unarmed. That had almost turned into a mistake. Walking quietly back to his dresser he grabbed his wand and a pair of slacks along with his cloak and for some unbeknownst reason he grabbed a pair of fresh socks.

Once curled up on the green velvet Slytherin couch, Draco placed his cloak over himself and began to doze. He was almost asleep when he heard a knocking noise from just beyond the Slytherin entrance He immediately jumped up and pulled on his slacks. He clasped his robes tightly and readied his wand.

Draco neared the door and heard footsteps passing outside. Someone was out there and Draco would rest just a bit easier if he knew who it was. Draco opened the entrance to the Slytherin dungeons slowly so as to not make the hinges squeak, as they were prone to do.

He looked down both hallways but saw no one. But he heard them. "Stop stepping on my foot!" Whispered a quiet voice harshly.

"Not my fault you're always underfoot. Move to your right and we'll be fine." There was silence now.

"Ron-"

"Both of you shut it! I'm sure all of Hogsmeade can hear us." Draco could have laughed just then. Potter and the dork parade were at it again. Breaking the rules seemed to be a favorite pastime of those three Gryffindors. Draco couldn't pass up this perfect opportunity. Two could play at the invisible game.

Draco reached his wand up to the top of his head and tapped hard. It was as if an egg had been broken over his head and was dripping down his body, concealing him. Looking down at his hands they were in fact the floors and he smiled. _Success!_

Running quickly and stealthily down the hallway, Draco quickly caught up and once he was level with a suit of armor he tapped it whispering a few words under his breath. Then he stood back and watched in anticipation.

Suddenly the suit of armor came to life and began dancing to a tune only he could hear. Granger jumped out from seemingly thin air and let out a loud shriek but her mouth was soon covered by a hand that was obviously attached to an arm, that was most likely and undeniably attached to a person, under what Draco now recognized as a very valuable and rare piece of cloth. Potter had an invisibility cloak. This fact suddenly gave Draco so many options, opened so many doors.

Potter had an invisibility cloak. Third year all the sudden rushed back to him. He remembered the attack on him, Crabbe, and Goyle in Hogsmeade but most vividly he remembered seeing Potter's head, a head that was no more aloud in Hogsmeade than the body itself.

Potter had once again wormed his way out of a very sticky situation and Draco was suddenly feeling very un-Gryffindor like. He wanted revenge; revenge for all the stunts Potter, Weasley and Granger got away with.

Before long a detailed plan was spinning in Draco's mind, a plan that would definitely tickle the fancy of one of Hogwarts' staff members that was not too keen on Potter.

Draco cupped his hands over his mouth and smirked wickedly, yelling at the top of his lungs, "PEEVES!" It echoed so badly that for a moment Draco was frozen to the spot and then he remembered, he was invisible. The moment his shriek pierced the silence and echoed from wall to wall he heard the bantering voice of peeves the poltergeist.

"Someone called, did they?" he asked, his childish face reflecting the joy Draco felt. Draco could see his shadowy form behind Mudblood Granger. Of course he couldn't see her but he could certainly smell and feel her.

It was completely silent and Draco was beginning to think that they once again wouldn't get caught, but then something Draco hadn't thought possible happened. There was a sneeze from under the cloak and Peeves smiled an awful smile that Draco mimicked.

"Oh," Peeves said feigning understanding. "Ickle students out of bed at night? Cause for a CELEBRATION!" He shouted and Draco cringed, letting out a short laugh as Granger ran with Weasley right behind her, leaving Potter in his invisibility cloak to fend for himself. No doubt he had told them to run but that was not the point, not at all.

Draco waited and waited. He wanted to see this happen, had been waiting for it for years. There would be no excuse for Potter this time, no way out. But he was wrong. Peeves was now sniffing the air with a relish and Draco realized that Potter had gone after the other two losers. It was just him, all alone out in the hallway now, and if he waited here much longer he would suffer the fate meant for Potter.

Draco stormed down the corridor, his bare feet hitting the stone floor so hard that his feet began to go numb from the constant assault on the tender nerves of his soles. Draco was pissed and he didn't care if Peeves knew he was there or not.

"Vladamir!" Draco shouted at the stone wall, which moved aside, revealing the entrance into the Slytherin common room. He stepped into the warm room and slammed the newly appeared door shut with a loud bang.

Draco threw himself up against the stone wall and let out howl of frustration. He was breathing so loudly that he could hear his pulse beating in his temples and became slightly disoriented. "God damn it!" he bellowed banging his fist into the wall repeatedly until he could feel blood trickling from his knuckles down his arm.

"Fu-"

"Pathetic." Came a whisper from behind him and Draco turned ever so slowly. He could have sworn it was the voice of his father. "He has potential." Another voice began. "Given the proper training they could both-"

"- No, not the girl, her mother is quite fond of her, though I can't begin to tell why. Quite a useless girl…"

"She could have use to me…" Said the cold voice that Draco recognized from the jump-start his heart gave. "I always have room for more in my company.

Draco strained his ears; the voice had trailed off. "Where is your wife?" Asked the voice of lord Voldemort.

"I, I, don't know, she left hours ago, she doesn't like to be around when we hold our meetings, she's quite fragile-"

"I want to see her, tell her to bring the boy."

"Yes, milord. I shall fetch her right away." There was silence and Draco listened closely in case he was missing something. But soon there were shouts and Draco could hear a sobbing woman.

"You promised Lucius! You promised me-"

"Shut up!" There was a loud smacking sound and Draco cringed. He could hear his mother scream out in pain.

"Give me the child." Said Voldemort in a quiet almost calm voice.

"No, no! You promised me Lucius. You said our children were safe from him!" Narcissa cried out, her voice going hoarse.

"Did you?" Voldemort asked Draco's father in an amused voice. "Get the child for me." There was a silence in which Draco was sure that his father hesitated. "Now!" The dark lord yelled and more of his mother's screams filled his head.

"Please don't Lucius. No…" Draco could now hear a small child crying and as he realized who it was his stomach did a flip and he felt nauseous.

"Hold out his arm, Lucius." The dark lord asked.

"No, no, no!" Narcissa screamed as if she were dying.

There was a loud sizzling sound and Draco felt a sharp pain in his left arm and the child cried out. It hurt like nothing had ever hurt him before. He could feel his flesh bubble as the brand was pressed deeper into the tender flesh of his arm and he felt himself begin to shake with the effort to conceal his screams that hid just an inch from the surface.

"No!" Draco shouted and he woke with a start as someone tapped on his shoulder.

"What's the matter with you?" Asked Crabbe who was standing over him, an uneasy look on his face. Draco thought of a lie quickly and gave him a reassuring smirk that he didn't feel.

"Had a dream I married a mudblood. Gruesome that one was, eh?" he joked and Crabbe laughed loudly. "Time's it?" Draco asked groggily as he sat up and wiped the perspiration from his brow. He realized he was just in his boxers and looked around the common room for his robe but he wasn't in the common room. He was in the sixth year boy's dormitory…

"It's seven-"

"Did you move me up here?" Draco asked suspiciously but Crabbe, lacking the brains required to lie, shook his head.

"Why Draco?" He asked and Draco shrugged.

"Thought I was asleep somewhere else's all." He replied and Crabbe smirked.

"With Pansy, eh?" Draco smiled back at him with what he hoped was a mischievous smile.

"Who else?" He stood and his body was wracked with a shiver that ran all the way from his feet to his brain. "I need to get changed." He said as a weak cover and he went to his dresser. His wand and everything was placed neatly on top of it and Draco tried to put this odd puzzle together. _Had it all been just a dream?_

Draco let out a yelp of pain as he scraped his injured knuckle across the drawer knob. "Damn!" He cursed.

"What happened?" Asked Goyle who had now joined them in the dormitory.

"I…" But the look on Crabbe's face seemed to be the easiest lie. "Thing's got a bit rough and… well, you guys get it."

"Yeah, mate." Crabbe replied.

Suddenly Draco was struck with an idea of such brilliance that he almost knocked his stuff off of his dresser. "I have to go." Draco said and he dressed as quickly and neatly as he could. He then sprinted out of the dormitory, down the stairs, through the great hall and into the other dungeon hallways where the potion's master was.

"Professor!" Draco gasped as he ran through the door.

"Mr. Malfoy, if you don't seem a bit distraught." Snape said as he stuffed a large piece of parchment into the drawer of his desk. "What is it I can do for you, I have already written out the paperwork for your classmates to join you in arithmancy class if that is what you are inquiring about."

"No, I was thinking maybe I could borrow a draught of Veritaserum…" Draco said and Snape looked suspicious but walked to his supply cupboard all the same.

"What, may I ask, do you need it so desperately for, Mr. Malfoy?" He asked as he extracted a small clear bottle from the innermost recesses of his cabinet.

Draco didn't want Snape to know the truth, not yet anyway, but he knew the only way to get the potion was to tell a convincing story that Snape would go for.

"Goyle and I want a bit of information from the Gryffindor Quidditch team, new tactics and all." Draco said with what he hoped was a winning smile. "We want to win the cup." He added hopefully.

"Right then." Snape said. "McGonagal has become too complacent." Snape walked over to Draco and handed him the small clear bottle. "A single minuscule drop will do, Mr. Malfoy." He warned and motioned him out of the door.

"Thank you professor." Draco called back as he left the classroom. He looked down at the bottle in awe and drank in its appearance. It was so little but could do so much, make so many talk when they had no will to do so on their own.

Mudblood Granger would have to be the one he asked. She was weak and as far as he knew she was the easiest one of them to get a hold of.

With a twinge of what seemed like sweet happiness Draco smiled widely. He was not merely going to make Potter's life a living hell; he was going todestroy it…


	7. When a Malfoy Says No

Sorry it's so short but it's a chapterwhich I shall call a necessary, seemingly pointless introduction to a character no one likes less than me. Well, you know what to do and if youdon't,I apologize, I have no qualms with illiterate people...

Chapter 7: When a Malfoy Says No

Lucius Malfoy stepped into the house expecting no less than what he deserved. The dark lord was very angry with him, very angry indeed.

Looking carefully around the dusty entryway he felt his heartbeat accelerate. It was not the fact that he was scared of the Dark Lord he could just be very persuasive when he wanted something done and he was very short with failure and news of failure is what Lucius was bringing with him.

He had been sent on a very important mission but had come back with no more information than he had left with. Every trail he had taken had ended up in a dead end even the one's he himself had discovered. It seemed as if Dumbledore's secret society was going to stay secret, at least for a time.

Lucius took a calming breath and began the ascent up the large staircase. Upon reaching the top step he looked around. As he had been told, the house held a certain amount of eerie silence even though one of the most wanted men in the ministry was residing here. He slowly walked down the dark hallway and tapped on the door with his cane. When there was no reply, Lucius straightened up and opened the door.

Inside was a high-backed chair that was set in front of the fire. Curled into a loose coil next to the chair was Nagini the snake, Voldemort's favorite pet. Though it did not move Lucius could see its eyes following him as he walked further into the room.

"It had better be good news, Lucius." Said a sharp voice behind the chair and Lucius jumped slightly.

"Yes, milord- I mean, no." Lucius stumbled over his words like a fool and Voldemort called for silence.

"Have you discovered the residency of Dumbledore's society?" Voldemort asked straightforwardly. When there was no answer he stood. "No names?" He asked while he straightened his cloak and turned to face Lucius. "No place, no names, and no leads, I'll assume. I will not lie, Lucius, I am very disappointed. You told me even before you left that you were the wizard for the job, guaranteed it in fact."

" I, well. It was more difficult than I had originally anticipated milord. There were not half as many probable leads as I was told there were." Lucius stammered. "I was given bad information, milord, this is certainly not my fault alone." Lucius could feel perspiration leaking down his back as he looked into the cold eyes of Lord Voldemort.

"I see, and I was led to believe that most of the leads that we had obtained came from you, Lucius. Was there a misunderstanding there as well, then?" He asked and Lucius shook his head.

"I had good information, there just wasn't enough… enough…" Lucius was suddenly lost for words and terrified about it.

"Enough what, Lucius? Resources? Money? Information? Men? I gave you enough resources to hunt for the city of Atlantis, Lucius. Money, I gave you enough of that to live the rest of your life buried in gold. And information, you and I both know how much of that you had at your disposal. I admit that man-power could have been a bit more accessible, but, Lucius, the fact is that I don't think that would have mattered."

Lucius was shaking now. He had an idea of what was coming. It happened to all those who disappointed the dark lord and he was next.

"Now, do you want to tell me what really happened?" Voldemort asked and Lucius looked down at his shoes. "No? That's a shame, Lucius, but you know what I must do." Lucius nodded while meeting the dark lord's eyes once again.

"But before I do, I would like to inform you of an idea I have recently brooded on. If you accept, I may be lenient with you, but refuse, and you will pay in full." Voldemort said in a bemused tone.

"Yes, anything milord." Lucius floundered and sighed a sigh of great relief.

"I would like your son to undergo the ceremony of the dark mark… Soon." He said, his voice telling Lucius that it was unavoidable in the end.

"Milord, that would endanger you greatly. I have been informed that you have already given the dark mark to Crabbe and Goyle's sons. It would be very suspicious to do that-"

"And finalize your loyalty to me. I see how easy it is for you to stay only partially committed, but the fact of the matter is that I cannot waste any more time on Death Eaters who are not completely loyal to me. It's a bit dangerous, you see." Voldemort said his eyes squinting as if he was trying to see into Lucius' brain and suddenly he felt naked.

"I understand where you are coming from, but I cannot… to take the boy out of school would be-"

"A risk I am willing to take. And if you are half as influential as you brag about you will do a good job of covering it up. Just like you covered that attack on the Weasleys, yes I know about it! I am not a stupid wizard, Malfoy and you will do this or you will die!" Voldemort shouted and Lucius cringed.

"I see you will not do this without a great amount of persuasion and seeing as I cannot write out a note for the boy myself I will either kill you in the process of negotiating or Narcissa will do it for me and you know how fond she is of the boy." Lucius nodded.

"So?" There was silence and the dark lord nodded. "I accept your decision though I may not respect or understand it. Self-preservation has always been one of your greatest priorities and whether it is love for the boy or something else entirely, I don't know." The dark lord sighed a sigh of fake regret and as Voldemort pointed his wand at him Lucius could not look.

"_Crucio!_" He shouted and Lucius felt as though every nerve in his body was on fire. He cried out in pain and fell to his knees. It felt like his body was being split in two and for a second he lost all sense of time and space and was unaware of whether or not he even had a body.

He came in and out of awareness sporadically and all he could see was red spots in front of his eyes. Then the pain stopped. Lucius groaned and before he could do anything he heard the word muttered somewhere far from where he was. "_Crucio!_" And it began all over again…


	8. The Sacrifice

Chapter 8: The Sacrifice 

Even after hours upon hours of thought, Draco still had no idea how he was going to coax Granger into being alone with him without seeming overly suspicious.

This, Draco decided, would be the most difficult part of his plan, assuming everything else he had planned went perfectly.

Draco spent the past two weeks brewing a not overly strong vial of a sedation draught, written out a list of questions to ask the mudblood, and was now scoping out locations that were inaccessible to students and most unlikely for teachers to suspect.

Unbeknownst to them, Draco had already gained the help of three fellow Slytherins. Just by listening in on casual conversations he had heard of three secluded places in which some Slytherins brought their lady friends and were never caught.

There was, of course, the room of requirement, which Draco had initially been fond of but had decided against. The transfiguration classroom, a most adequate candidate considering its security. And finally, the potions classroom. That, he would not pretend otherwise, was his first choice.

"Can anyone tell when and why Griswald the Goblin took his clan over the mountains and into British territory?" Professor Binns asked in his boring monotone voice as his eyes swept over the classroom lazily.

Draco looked up from the parchment he had been scribbling upon. He rose his hand slowly into the air and waited patiently.

"Yes, Mr. Malloy?" Professor Binns said turning his transparent eyes towards Draco. Draco had accepted this as his new surname only due to the fact that their ghost teacher was incapable of change.

"Griswald left Germany in 1687 in order to free his clan from the prejudiced lives they lived and to help heighten focus on Goblin rights. When they entered British territory however, they discovered that they had left one oppressive land just to enter another." Draco did not lookup as the teacher nodded.

"Correct. Ten points for Slytherin." Professor Binns said in an unsurprised tone that left many Slytherins and Hufflepuffs staring in Draco's direction. He immediately moved on deeper into the lesson.

Draco knew that some wondered how he had known the answer but a better question would have been how could he not? Griswald was one of the most well known figures in the history of the dark arts revolution, which was required reading for a Malfoy.

After Griswald migrated his entire clan, wasting all their resources and money, he was approached by Gladatorian, a dark wizard, who had an offer Griswald could not refuse. Griswald was paid to torture and kill witches and wizards who had information about the rising of the Ministry of Magic with cruel and unusual techniques acquired from Germany.

When the Ministry of Magic was firmly established Griswald was found guilty of murder and conspiracy to overrule a government. His entire clan was killed and their heads still guard the gates to the German Ministry of Magic in Berlin.

Draco yawned and leaned back. This was one lesson he could afford to sleep through, he knew, but instead he would plan.

Draco had thought of luring her away from her Gryffindor friends under the false pretense that he had to speak with her about important prefectorial matters. That would have been a logical approach considering both her and Draco were second-year prefects but so was Weasel and Draco was sure Granger would insist upon him being present if Weaselby did not himself. There was also the option of getting them both detention again, but that would seem suspicious. Then again, Draco thought with a smirk, there was always kidnapping.

Miraculously the answer to his problem arrived with the morning post the next morning in the form of a chestnut brown owl with a lazy eye. Though his first reaction was anger, as he absorbed the words he let a smile tug at his lips.

He had begun to think of crazily elaborate ideas for getting Granger alone with him, like beating Weaselby unconscious, hiding his body in a broom closet, sending a letter to Granger telling her to meet Weasel in the potions classroom where Draco would in fact be waiting… Way too much work to put into a simple interrogation.

Looking over the letter again he nodded. _Mr. Malfoy, you have failed to attend one out of the two detentions you have been given. If you are not in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom at nine O'clock tonight, the consequences will be dire._

The letter itself could mean only one thing. Draco's cold gray eyes wandered across the hall and fell upon a certain mudblood named Granger. The look on her face said very clearly that she had gotten one as well.

Hermione eyed the note that she had just received with mixed feelings. In one sense it was what she deserved, which was a relief, but on the other hand she was furious with McGonagal.

Hermione had served more than enough "extra time" with Gryffindor enemy number one. Draco Malfoy's rabid smirks, sharp snide words, and emotionally void personality were getting old, fast.

"Hey, Hermione. Seen Harry at all?" Hermione turned to see Ron behind her before he sat down in the seat next to her. He gave her a lazy smile that said he was exhausted and she shook her head.

"No, but we have to talk." Ron's smile faltered and a serious expression fell over his face.

"If it's about last night, I didn't mean for it to go that far-" He stopped talking as she held up her hand for silence.

"I would have helped you anyway, Ron, but I don't know if I understand why it _did_ get that far." She said and he looked down at his hands, which were being wrung nervously.

"What he said about my father, it isn't true. My father did not cry." Ron said, his voice filled with bitterness.

Hermione shook her head. "But by letting him get to you, you let him win." She said in a calm voice and Ron glared in her direction.

"So if your family was attacked by death eaters and your father tortured like an animal, you're saying that you would always be logical and calm? I admit that I acted purely on impulse but what would you have done? Let him sit there and tell stories like the little bastard he is? I think not." Ron paused to catch his breath. Hermione had noticed that his voice was steadily rising the more he remembered.

"The truth is, Ron, I don't know what I would have done. But I doubt I would have risked the lives of four other Gryffindors for some revenge trip and that is just what you did." Hermione felt her cheeks turning red. "Colin could have died last night. What would you have done then?"

'I'll tell you what I would have done, Hermione, I would have packed my bags and left. I would have taken full responsibility for what happened! I'd say goodbye to Hogwarts in an instant if he would have died." He was breathing hard as he continued.

"What about Ginny, and Harry, and Neville, and what about me, Ron? What if you would have gotten one of us killed?" When he didn't answer she nodded. "I really don't think this is going to work between us. We're two very different people and you're a lot less mature than I thought you were."

"W-what?" Ron sputtered indignantly. " I don't understand what you mean… Why?" Hermione saw his cheeks turn red and the hurt expression on his face was enough to make her throat constrict. She really did care about him but she would not sacrifice what she believed in just to placate him.

"I understand your hatred for Lucius Malfoy, believe me, I'm your biggest support on that, but Draco is not his father." She was about to correct herself but it was too late to divert disaster. Ron's ears turned a deep shade of red and his eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"Somebody seems to be unusually close with our Slytherin prefect and don't you tell me it's educational!" The second the words left his mouth he wished he could have said anything else.

Hermione slowly stood and shouldered her bag. "How dare you!" She shouted and Ron cringed away from her. "We had detention! Not exactly the breeding grounds for a good relationship! And besides that, did you completely miss the fact that we _HATE EACH OTHER!"_ Hermione could not believe that she was being forced to justify this.

"Well, you have been spending a lot of time with him and you seem to like defending him." Ron said in an almost reproachful voice.

"Somebody has to!" She shouted and Ron Guffawed. "Look Ron, I understand that what his father did was terrible and he deserves to be punished, but taking it out on the people who care the most about you will only hurt _you_! When you do this, blame everyone else, you have to realize that someone like Lucius isn't going to be the one who ends up alone, you are!"

Hermione's eyes filled with tears. She didn't want him to see that his words had cut so deeply, but they had. "I am just shocked that you think I would have anything to do with him if you had even the slightest doubt that he was involved with what happened to your father and it hurts to know that that is how much you trusted me to begin with." Hermione turned and left, storming out of the great hall, hundreds of pairs of eyes watching her as she left.

Draco watched in amusement as he saw Granger stand and shout something at Weasley. After a few more words were exchanged, Granger left the hall, bag clutched so tightly in her hand that her knuckles were white and tears were streaming carelessly down her face.

He had to hand it to Weaselby. It had lasted longer than Draco had ever thought possible in Weasley's case. Draco's initial bet on how long the relationship would last was an hour, but Weaselby did not only exceed that, he had made the mudblood cry. How? Draco felt an emotion like indifference come over his mind. He didn't know, but he could care less about it.

Then again, Draco also had to give Granger some credit. It was obvious she had been the one to break it off and if it was out of pure common sense or sheer stupidity, it didn't matter. Her and Weasley were _too_ compatible it didn't seem right-

Draco's thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a black owl in front of his plate. He immediately recognized it as his father's and reached forward to grab the note attached to its scaly leg. After the note was separated from the owl it swooped off the table in a graceful way and flew out of the hall.

_Draco dear, your father's gone missing, be careful._ Draco turned the note over expecting to see more, a message in code, anything at all that made sense.

But then, Draco thought, it all made perfect sense. His father was missing and he had just left two months before on a secret mission for the Dark lord and his mother was warning him, which meant she had reason to believe Draco was not safe.

Self-preservation was Draco's first priority and that meant staying away from those closest to Voldemort, those within his inner circle.

Draco felt sickness come over him as he thought about the potions teacher here at Hogwarts. He was in close proximity to the dark lord and had only been biding his time for the past few years as the Hogwarts' potions master and Head of the Slytherin house. But Draco attended Hogwarts School of Fricken witchcraft and Wizardry, he was more than safe considering that Saint Potter was currently enrolled.

"Thinking too hard or is what you're thinking actually painful?" Asked a cold female voice from behind him.

"_Please go away…"_ He hated these little chats before classes. Each one always seemed to end a bit more unpleasantly than the last.

"That's not what you used to say, Draco. You used to want me as much as I still want you." Pansy whispered, leaning forward just far enough to where he could see her face out of the corner of his eye.

"Get the hell away from me." Draco said with not even a hint of a joke in his voice.

"Make me." She said challengingly.

"Leave me the hell alone or I fear you may become the first girl I ever hit." He said turning to meet her eyes.

"Somehow with your father being who he is and your mother being his little punching bag, I find it shocking that you are such a disappointment to the Malfoy name." Draco stood and pushed her backwards, away from the table and she lost her balance, hitting the floor with a thud of flesh and bones.

"You may be an expensive whore but that doesn't make you worth my time." Draco said with a sarcastic smirk.

"You certainly weren't talking like this in those moments in which you were helpless to control that mouth of yours." She gave him a smile that told Draco she knew more than she should. She arched her back and let out a laugh that made a shiver of pure dread run up his spine. "_I don't want to be like them, Pansy… I am not my father. Pansy, oh…"_

"You're a waste of my time." Draco spat and Pansy laughed wickedly. Draco turned and left the Great hall in a rush.

As he walked up towards the library he could feel the blood rush to his cheeks. He had never been more embarrassed. She had announced his most intimate thoughts from his most intimate moments in front the whole Slytherin table and a few more around the hall.

He should choose his partners more selectively, he admitted bitterly, but he did not take full responsibility for what had transpired between him and Pansy. He was more than sure his father had not been completely innocent of the entire affair considering he had introduced them at a point in time which Draco had hardly been able to ignore the simple fact that he was male and Pansy was very much a female.

Pansy was not one to talk about inability to keep to oneself. Those few precious moments in which she was silent were those in which Draco could say that he truly had lost control. And when she wasn't silent she always had something vulgar or something seemingly seductive to say, not that Draco had fallen for her charm in any sense, he had never fallen at all.

The attraction between Pansy and himself had been purely physical and now that that aspect of their relationship was over he owed her nothing and vice versa. It should have been a clean split but Pansy had insisted upon making it more difficult than necessary, like she couldn't let go of her ambition to bear the Malfoy name.

Draco let his thoughts of the events in the great hall drift away as he neared the library. He was willing to let everything from that chapter of his life be forgotten and lost among the many memories he held deep in his mind. Those memories that only surface in dreams.

Draco opened the door to the library, shutting it quietly behind him, and walked to the very back corner near the dark arts section. He set his bag on the table and unclasped the front pouch. Searching through his bag blindly Draco heard something from the corner. Just as his fingertips met the quill he stopped moving and strained his ears.

He turned and began following the noise. Walking down the nearest shelf of books the sound grew louder and more familiar. As he turned the corner it suddenly sounded a lot like-

"Granger?" Draco asked in astonishment as his eyes fell upon the bushy-haired mudblood sitting in the corner tears streaming from her rather plain brown eyes.

"What are _you_ doing here?" She snarled as she tried to wipe the tears from her face as if he had never seen her cry before.

"Well, I came to find the dying cat and put it out of its misery, but considering it's you and it's against the law, I'll be minding my own business, now." He said with a cold smile. He turned to walk away but stopped himself. _Nah, never suited my personality to mind my own business…_He turned back and glared. "He's not worth it, you know. Weasel's not quite as grand as everyone thinks." And with that he walked arrogantly back to his table where he read until the bell rang.

Upon entering the DADA classroom Draco sat at the front table with Crabbe and Goyle who were very excited about something.

"Congratulations!" Goyle whispered while patting him on the back.

"For what?" Draco asked with a frown as he looked at his two friends' faces that seemed to be glowing with some secret he did not know.

"The dark lord wants to administer the dark mark… soon, maybe this week." Crabbe said and Draco gave him a glare of caution.

"Sorry, Draco, thought you'd be excited. This is what you've been waiting for and now we'll all three be bonded closer than brothers." Crabbe apologized and Draco nodded.

_Excited? Why would I want to throw my life of independence at someone else's feet when it has barely begun? Why would I be excited about pledging everything I have to the success or failure of one wizard who is but a man?_ Draco sighed… He wished he could have told them how he really felt but he held back, he had to. "Yeah…"

Crabbe was about to say something when Professor dark entered the classroom. She walked to her desk and sat down, staring at them expectantly.

"Well, open your books and turn to page three ninety seven!" She snapped causing the classroom to jump to action all at once.

Draco wash sure the wind draft he felt on the back of his neck had been caused by a certain mudblood raising her hand as quickly as humanly possible to point out some error.

"Professor, we aren't even on chapter two yet." Granger said quietly and Draco turned. She was sitting at a table with two other Gryffindors, surprisingly enough neither one of them was Potter or Weaselby. The argument must have been good, he thought with a smirk as he turned back towards the front.

"I know that Miss Granger and the second you run this class, which wont be any time soon, you will be able to decide in which order we learn defense against the dark arts." Professor Dark said and Draco, along with the rest of the class was forced to muffle his laughter into his sleeve.

"Does anyone in here know what an Alidore is?" She asked and Draco knew Granger had her hand raised. But watching Dark's eyes pass over that side of the room Draco made a decision based solely on his imagining the look on Granger's face. "I don't expect any sixth years to have-"

Draco raised his hand and Dark met his stare with her vividly electric blue eyes. "Mr. Malfoy?"

"Alidores are a darker cousin to the centaur. They, like centaurs, are bound from telling lies but may twist the truth so terribly that it becomes only a shadow of what it began as." Draco paused. "They are also able to hypnotize their victims into a false sense of security by accessing their emotions and displaying a façade of character that not only proves false but fatal. Finally and least importantly they are very capable diviners as well." He finished.

"Why do you say that that is the least important of their powers Mr. Malfoy?" Dark coaxed and Draco took the bate. He knew too much on this subject to feign ignorance.

"Humans are the Alidores natural enemy and from birth they are taught stay away from us, it is law to them and the only time they ever find themselves in contact with the human race is when they, meaning elders, transform from half-horse, half-man into human form. Even then they are told to handle these limited interactions with great discretion." Draco could have added but it seemed that he had said just what the teacher wanted to hear.

"Thirty points to Slytherin for Mr. Malfoy's in depth knowledge of one of the most dangerous and darkest creatures of the wizarding world." She said with a smile and Draco looked down at his book to avoid the many stares he had just received. "But, Mr. Malfoy, I have one final question." Draco nodded and she pushed her glasses up onto the bridge of her nose. "What makes the transformation from centaur form to Human form difficult for most Alidores?" Draco was silent for a while, trying to figure an easy and short way to word his answer. "I don't expect you to-"

"The Alidores may transform into humans but there is a small catch." Draco began. "They may not transform into the same gender, meaning that if a male Alidores wished to make the transformation he could only become a female vice versa with female Alidores. This makes it very difficult for the Alidores to fit into human society due to the fact that only senior Alidores can make the transformation and they have spent centuries being a certain gender. It makes their job of fitting in much harder and less convincing, thus their number one defense mechanism becomes a dangerous possibility."

Alias Dark clapped her hands together loudly and smiled like he had never seen a teacher at Hogwarts smile before. "Brilliant! Ten more points for Slytherin." Once the class quieted again she settled down.

"Alidores are also very violent creatures." Said a female voice from the back of the class and the smile on Draco's face faded.

The professor looked at her skeptically before nodding. "Go on." She said shortly and Granger looked flustered.

"After hypnotizing their prey, Alidores generally crush the bones in the human's skull or back in order to assure the body stays in tact." She finished and Alias nodded.

"But, why, Miss Granger, would that matter if they are only to be eaten?" Her voice suggested she knew but she was leading the lesson in this manner today, letting the more advanced students teach the rest of them.

"Well, Alidores have beliefs very similar to Celtic tradition." She began. "They believe that if the injuries they cause to a human breaks the skin the 'soul' of the witch or wizard leaks away, which, the soul is the only reason they killed the person in the first place." Granger explained slowly. "Also, they only kill very powerful and talented witches and wizards because they believe that once consumed, they will absorb the power from that individual they killed."

"Is there anything else anyone would like to add to our compilation of facts on Alidores?" Professor Dark asked as she looked around the room. When no one raised their hands she sighed. "Fifty points to Gryffindor for Miss Granger's extensive knowledge of the violent nature of the Alidores and ten points _from_ Gryffindor for her inability to contain herself."

The rest of the class Draco spent bitterly taking notes on the different kind of centaurs there were around the world. When the bell rang he did not wait for Crabbe and Goyle but went straight to the transfiguration classroom on the second floor.

When he entered he still had six minutes to wait so he took his seat at the second table from the front and pulled out a piece of parchment and his favorite quill.

Scribbling idly, his parchment soon transformed into a comic strip about a know-it-all Gryffindor that could not stand to keep her mouth shut for more than five minutes.

As Draco sat scribbling he realized just how glad he was that Gryffindors had charms class all the way across the school, as far as any class could be.

Finally the bell rang and as Draco looked over his drawing he laughed. Putting it away, he seemed drawn to her surname. It was a pleasing word as far as syllables, vowels and consonants went but something else about it made him look twice. Granger… it sounded original.

But his thoughts were interrupted by McGonagal as she stormed into the class. Her face was red and she was shaking with fury. He pulled out his year six transfiguration book as did the rest of the Slytherins and all the Ravenclaws.

"Put your books away!" She snapped and the class did just that. "I guess the Ministry of Magic has other plans for you other than lessons." She ranted quite loudly. "These are portfolios, fill them out or you will not graduate from Hogwarts."

With a wave of her wand the folders were distributed rather violently at every table. "Write your names on it and follow the directions, yes Miss Patil?"

"What are these?" Asked a black-haired Ravenclaw girl in the front row.

"They are a collection of your best works from year one to seven."

Draco was distraught. This had the ring of something that wouldn't last for very long and soon he found out why.

"At Salem's school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, they have instituted this program and they seem to show improvement. Never mind that _our_ test scores started out over twenty percent higher, completely dismiss the fact that no one has the time to monitor these meaningless folders filled with clutter and even forget the fact that they're bloody Americans!" She shouted and students all over the classroom cringed.

Immediately after the students began to look through the requirements hands were raised into the air.

"Yes Miss Patil?" McGonagal asked.

"I don't have any work from first through third year-"

"I don't either-

"I guess you're in trouble then- Yes, Mr. Dowerlain?"

"Professor, we weren't given a charms final exam two years ago-

"Professor I don't know what this means-"

"No, hang on-"

"ENOUGH!" McGonagal yelled, pulling at her hair. "Put these away and I better never see them out in my classroom again. This will have to be something that our temporary replacement headmaster will deal with." She calmed down as did the rest of the classroom and Draco sighed a sigh of relief. This class had been on the edge of chaos and had it continued he was sure McGonagal would have killed someone.

"Open your books to page one-twenty-seven, chapter three." She said. "Miss. Collins, read the introduction to _Transfiguring Reptiles into Fashionable Furniture_ and once that has been read all of you please grab a snake from the bins at the front of the classroom"

"The first lesson on _Transfiguring Reptiles into Fashionable Furniture _is changing a diamond patterned snake into a square of diamond patterned cloth. The process itself is quite easy. While using the wand waving technique on page one twenty nine, figure eleven, recite the incantation _ornamentum transformo_ loud and clearly while pointing your wand at the snake you wish to transfigure."

Collins finished reading and everyone walked to the front. Draco caught the hang of the spell after three tries and soon was aloud to move onto larger reptiles along with three other students. At the end of the class he had made three chairs, enough squares of cloth to make a patchwork quilt, and a couch with metallic scales that looked like it _belonged_ in the Slytherin common room.

After Transfiguration Draco went directly to the Slytherin common room where he took a short nap, read, and watched the flames consume the wood in the fire while waiting for the allotted detention time to come around.

When the time did turn eight thirty Draco walked up to the boy's dormitory and to his dresser. He cursed quietly as he once again scraped his wounded hand across the drawer and pulled an oddly shaped pair of socks from the bottom of the drawer.

_The Veritaserum_, he though excitedly as he eyed the clear bottle in his hand. He placed it into the large pocket of his robe and turned to leave.

He didn't think he had ever walked so fast to get to detention but he couldn't help being excited. He was about to ruin Potter's perfect life, shatter the trusting relationship between the three famous Gryffindorks, and make a name for himself in Slytherin besides his surname.

He entered the classroom to find it void of anyone. He figured he must have arrived pretty early and leaned his head back against the chair. He had been correct. Soon Granger walked through the door and with a frown he noticed that her eyes were rather puffy and her nose red, as if she had just been crying again.

She took the seat in the far back and waited for Alias Dark to arrive. Conveniently, Crabbe and Goyle did not show up until right before Dark did herself.

"Welcome to detention, anyone wish to tell me why you're here?" She met each of their eyes with a scrutinizing look like she was trying to see into their minds. "Mr. Malfoy, does it have anything to do with your record of being out of bed past curfew? Mr. Crabbe, Mr. Goyle, could this have to do with your following nature? And finally, Miss Granger, could it have to do with your undying curiosity of other people's whereabouts at all times of day and night?"

Draco could not help but smirk. He found it hilarious that she had hit every point as accurately as if she had been the one assigning the detention.

"Now to fairly decide what we shall do with the two hour detention you owe me…" She was silent for a moment and then explained her decision. "Well, first I shall break up your little cliques, or should I say clique. Mr. Malfoy, you will work with Miss Granger, Crabbe and Goyle, you'll be on your own. Anyone care to guess what we will be doing?"

Draco was the only one to raise his hand. "Clean, muggle-style." Draco offered hopefully and thank god, she nodded.

"You and Miss Granger will be cleaning the trophy room and Mr. Crabbe will be scrubbing the male lavatories on the second floor and Mr. Goyle, the first floor." Alias Dark looked over each one of them again and nodded decisively. "Disperse." And they all left, going their respective ways in their assigned groups.

An hour later Draco was cleaning a trophy the size of a small horse and Granger was on the other side of the room shining the awards chamber.

Slowly as time went by they both moved towards the center of the room and Draco was desperate for conversation, even an unpleasant one with the mudblood. His mouth was dry and his throat was sticky from disuse.

"You and Weaselby broke up, eh?" He asked in a casual tone and Granger guffawed.

"Like it is any of your business, it's half your fault there was trouble in the first place. Walking around in the middle of the night all over the grounds, you should have been expelled." She growled while scrubbing the plaque twice as hard as was good for its finish.

"Look, if you do it right, we'll be out of here in a few more minutes but if you scratch it to pieces we'll have to sit here until one of us can piss a new one." Draco said spitefully as he tore the plaque from her grasp. Looking at the name he laughed. "Potter wouldn't be happy about you treating his father's award like that…" Hermione grabbed it back and glared.

"You don't seem to be near busy enough, work on this one, it should have sentimental value to you." She thrust an award into his hand and as he looked down, his half-cocked smirk faded and his blood ran cold under his skin, making him shiver.

"How the hell would you know what has sentimental value to me, mudblood?" He asked bitterly as he shined the special services award that had been given to Tom Riddle in the fifties.

"Hmm… Let me see, your father being who _he_ is, your friends and their fathers being who _they_ are? I'm willing to guess you all stop over at little old Voldie's house for a spot of tea every Friday." Granger said boldly and he could have smacked that smile off her filthy little face.

"I'd like to see you call him that to his face. Right before he killed you of course." He said slowly as he set the plaque carefully back up on the shelf.

"And I'm sure you'd stay just to watch the show. You seem to get a lot of pleasure out of torturing people." She spat and he growled. "I don't speak primitive ape or moron, Malfoy so I guess this conversation is over!" She stood and walked to the door but Draco lunged after her, grabbing her by the arm. "Let go of me!" She yelled trying to yank her arm free but to no avail.

Draco pulled Granger's head backwards by her hair and pulled out the sedative. She squirmed but despite her struggling he poured the blue liquid down her throat and she became almost instantly quiet and almost entirely compliant.

Draco helped her walk across the room to a chair in the corner. He had not planned to do it here but this would have to do, he thought miserably.

Pulling out his parchment he looked over the list once before pulling out the bottle of Veritaserum.

"What're you doing?" She slurred and Draco measured out a small drop of potion in the vial's lid to shove down Granger's throat.

"Take this." He said and handed her the lid. She did, and he decided he would test it out before he got to the real questions. He might as well have some fun with this, anyway.

"Granger, are you in fact a filthy little mudblood?" He asked with a smile.

"Yes." She said in a monotone voice and Draco smirked.

"Have you ever gone farther than a kiss?" This one was aimed to embarrass her later on.

"No." Draco sighed in disappointment.

"Why did you break up with Weasley?"

"He's immature and retribution is his only focus."

"Retribution for what?"

"Retribution for what your father did to his."

"Did you make Weasley cry?" He asked moving away from the whole uncomfortable subject of revenge.

"Yes." Draco laughed out loud at this and decided on one last question.

"What do you think of Draco Malfoy?" He was feeling very cocky at this point and believed Granger would cater to his ego.

"Draco Malfoy is a slimy, self-centered, pratish, ignorant, and arrogant git that tries too hard to be everything that Slytherin stands for."

… _Harsh._ Draco pulled out the list briskly and asked the first question. "Where does Potter hide his invisibility cloak?" He asked eagerly.

"I am unable to say…" _What in the hell?_

"What is the current password into Gryffindor tower?"

"Twinkle-bee." Granger said monotonously.

"What is Potter's greatest secret?"

"I am unable to say…"

"Where is Sirius Black?" Draco was becoming desperate for any shred of information. This wasn't working and he couldn't pretend to know why.

"I am unable to say…"

Draco pulled out the Veritaserum again, reading the label, and gave her two more small drops, which was more than enough to make her talk.

"Now, where does Potter hide his invisibility cloak?"

"I am unable to say…"

"God damn it! What the fuck is Potter's secret?" He asked.

"I am unable to say…"

He lunged at her angrily and grabbed her by the hair once again. He tilted her head back, forcing more of the clear liquid down her throat than he probably should have, but he didn't care, even when he was faced with an empty bottle. He had planned so well for this, everything had been prepared beforehand and Granger was ruining everything, she had probably cast a concealment charm on herself to keep Potter and his slimy secrets safe.

"Where does Potter hide his invisibility cloak?" He asked for the third time.

"In his trunk at the end of his bed."

"What is the combination to his lock?

"One three seven nine eleven three." Now he was getting somewhere.

"You know, Draco," Granger began and he snapped up, looking into her glazed brown eyes. "You really aren't as bad as you want to think you are… you try much too hard to please those who know your father and in the end you're going to be the one to pay. Voldemort won't take your attitude very long and then where will you be? Dead, perhaps…"

"What the hell's the matter with you?" Draco asked and Granger shrugged over enthusiastically, tipping over and out of the chair, hitting the floor with a thud.

"I just feel like telling the truth… That's what you wanted." She laughed as she stood, swaying on her feet.

"Look, I'm done with this." Draco said and Granger nodded.

"I answered all your questions, then?"

"Yes, now, just wait here 'til morning. Someone'll find you… eventually. Or the drug'll wear off."

"I don't want to stay here alone, I want to go with you." She slurred as she stumbled unsteadily towards him.

"As nice as that sounds, I have to say no."

She tripped forward over her feet and he caught her around the waist before she fell. She hung in his arms for a minute and he looked at her. Her eyes had a gray tint caused by the overdose of Veritaserum and she was suffering from the same side affects that alcohol caused from the sedation draught. At this point she was worse than inebriated.

"You need to sit down and wait here." He said softly and his expression became kind as she nodded. He helped her back to the chair and she cooperatively sat. Once he made sure she'd stay in place he turned to leave but she caught the sleeve of his robe. He tore it out of her grasp and continued towards the door.

"Please don't leave me in here. It will get dark when you leave, I don't want to be in the dark." She pleaded, her voice stumbling over the words as her mind tried to make sense of her scattered thoughts. "Draco…"

The way she said his name made him hesitate. She seemed genuinely scared even if there was nothing to fear here except for rats and Mrs. Norris' lamp-like eyes.

"When I was little, my father used to leave me in the dark… He promised me that nothing would ever happen to me, but he lied." Draco tried to close his ears but she had caught his interest. He knew he shouldn't listen to her, these were things that he wasn't meant hear.

"And what happened?" He asked and Draco could have kicked himself in the teeth. This was not his business.

"I grew up. I wasn't scared of the dark for the longest time, until Voldemort came back." Granger began to sob and Draco turned back around. The expression on his face was a mixture of disbelief and stern indignation. "Aren't you ever scared to go to sleep when you know he's out there, waiting? But I suppose you know where he is, and you know what he'll do."

"I do get scared, just like everyone else, Granger." Draco conceded dejectedly. "I just hide it far enough under the surface to keep my dignity and wits about me." Draco admonished gruffly. "If I worried all the time about everything and everyone else, I'd get lost like you are."

"How can you be so apathetic? People are dying, Draco-"

"Stop calling me that!" He shouted and she went silent. "And I know that! I know people are dying, Granger! I'm not nearly as ignorant as your Gryffindor friends make me out to be." He snarled. "People die every day, Granger, and if you grieve and regret for every single person who does you'll be cheerless and despondent for the rest of your life."

"People we know-"

"No, Granger, people _you _know. Everyone _I_ know was smart enough to choose the right side. I-"

"Did you choose, Draco, or were you told?" Granger asked sordidly and Draco was temporarily lost in thought.

"I told you not to call me that." He said dangerously in barely more than a whisper. "This is over, now get up so I can help you walk to your tower." He held out his arm for her and she latched on, leaning most of her weight against him.

It was a long and most uncomfortable walk to Gryffindor tower and Draco was beginning to regret his whole plan of revenge. This turned out to be more of a pain in the ass than he could have ever imagined. He admitted he should have been a bit more frugal with the Veritaserum, but it wasn't his fault that she had been… well, a filthy little mudblood. How should he have known that by giving someone more than three times the regular dose they lost not only their mind but their ability to shut the hell up.

"There." She said while pointing upwards as they reached the stairs.

"Can you go up on your own now?" He asked passively and she nodded, but as soon as she took her first independent step he had to reach forward quickly and steady her. "Don't be stupid. If you need help, don't bullshit me, I don't have to help you, you know."

"I know…" She said looking back at him.

"Good. Now don't let go or I'll let you fall on your ass and laugh about it." His words could have stung but the tone in which he said them was not entirely convincing.

They took each step one at a time and when they finally reached a portrait of a robust woman Granger stopped. "Go on, Granger." He snapped as she stood there staring at him.

"Do you know my name?" She asked dreamily and Draco shook his head defiantly. He did know, would he tell _her_ that? No. Would he ever call her by it? Probably not in their lifetime. "My name is Hermione."

Draco nodded slowly and he felt the urge to do something that completely defied every ounce of common sense in his body. "Don't be too angry when I forget." He said as he moved towards her.

"You won't." She whispered and he shook his head.

"How can you be so sure? Malfoys forget things so easily…" His voice trailed off just inches from her mouth, her lips…

"You're not a very good Malfoy." Draco felt the urge fade and stepped away instantaneously shivering. What had he almost done? "Goodbye, Draco." She said as he began to walk away.

"Yeah, whatever." He shrugged while turning. "Just stay the hell away from me. If I hear you call me that again I'll find some way to make your life miserable." He threatened emptily.

"You already do." He heard her say and she muttered the password to the Gryffindor common room. When he looked back up the stairs she was gone.

He made his way sightlessly to the Slytherin corridor. "Vladamir." He said quietly and the stone slid aside.

Upon entering Draco walked straight up to his dormitory where he crawled into bed and slept the best sleep he had had in over three years. He had so much on his mind he couldn't dream, he merely entered darkness and settled there, resting, waiting for the moment he would have to return to painful and imperfect reality.


	9. The Black Letter and the Blue Tongue

Chapter 9: The Black Letter and the Blue Tongue 

Hermione woke with the worst headache she had ever had. There was something nagging at the back of her mind but she just couldn't grasp at anything substantial. It felt like her skull was threatening to split.

Sitting up, she pushed the red comforter and gold sheets away from her. It was way too hot for them. Leaning forward Hermione groaned aloud as she placed her palms over her eyes. The sunlight leaking through the windows was most unwelcome and she chose to stand before she gave into the urge to just roll back over and die.

As soon as her feet met the floor and she found balance an overwhelming nausea swept through her. The floor seemed to shift from under her feet as she ran to the door of the girl's dormitory and down the steps. It was with great relief that Hermione saw the common room was empty right before she threw herself into the girl's lavatory where she began retching upon arriving at an open toilet.

"Out late and suffering from a hangover? Why miss Granger, one might assume the worst." Said the calculating female voice of Parvati Patil, one of Hermione's roommates. "I waited up for you until midnight but finally went to sleep… Where were you?" The voice was from outside the stall but it echoed inside Hermione's head like she was saying the same thing over and over again.

"I, I was at detention. It took longer than expected." Hermione rasped as she felt tears come to her eyes. Every time she tried to stand she felt the nausea return with a vengeance and her blood was beating in her temples, making her ears hurt terribly from the pounding.

"Detention from nine to one? Hermione, come on, it's me you're talking to. You can feel safe sharing the details." Parvati said sweetly. "Now who is he?"

"No one, there is no he-" Suddenly bits and pieces of memory returned to her and she bent over the toilet again, wave by wave of vomit doubling her over in pain.

"Right…"

Fifteen minutes later Hermione left the bathroom and walked back up to the dormitory. She dressed slowly and uncoordinatedly while trying to recall the events of the night before.

She remembered the detention but she remembered more than that alone. She remembered Draco's cold gray eyes looking into hers and for fleeting moments, she felt feelings rushing back to her, like she was reliving pieces of the night. But none of these images or sensations led to answers about where exactly she had been at one O'clock in the morning and she was just now considering the possibility that she had been with a certain Slytherin.

Looking into the mirror she yawned loudly and screamed. Looking closer at her reflection she saw that her tongue was a dark shade of blue. Hermione scraped it against her teeth to see if it was some kind of dye but nothing changed.

Keeping her mouth clamped shut Hermione walked down the stairs, through the common room, through three hallways and corridors and finally into the great hall where she saw her friends.

Ron immediately stood when he saw her and began launching into a defensive conversation but Hermione stuck out her tongue and he smirked. "It's not funny, Ron!" She said guardedly and he put a hand over his mouth.

"What on earth happened?" Harry asked what Ginny, Ron, and Hermione wanted to know and she shrugged.

"Where were you last night?" Ron asked suddenly and Hermione rolled her eyes. "What? It's a simple question."

"I was at detention. Since you sabotaged my second detention I was forced to serve another. Now help me out! What kind of spell can cause this because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do it to myself-"

"You had detention with Malfoy, right?" Harry asked suspiciously and Hermione rolled her eyes once again.

"Honestly Harry, I don't know what that has to do with it-"

"Everything! That git has everything to do with it Don't you see?" Harry laughed crazily as if she were mad not to see it. "You go to detention with Malfoy the first time and end up in the hospital wing, the second time-"

"How'd you know about me being in the hospital wing?" Hermione asked and Ron crossed his arms over his chest, a look on his face that said he was curious as well.

Harry looked fleetingly at her then to Ron. "Hermione told me yesterday." He said and the look on his face told Hermione that that was the story.

"Oh, yeah!" She said quickly and Ron looked back and forth between her and Harry suspiciously. "It completely slipped my mind. Harry and I were… erm studying in the Library before first class and… T-that's when I told him."

"But Harry was with me the whole time before first class-"

"No!" Harry butted in. "Remember when I went to the restroom? I really wanted to see how Hermione was doing." He finished in a rush.

"How _she_ was doing? _She_ broke up with _me_!" Ron said in disbelief and as his voice faded away as Hermione tried to read Harry's face. "Bloody hell! You'd think you'd be trying to console me, but-"

"It's all right Ron, he was completely on your side, but once again we are completely off subject!" She exclaimed and Harry nodded. "I remember going to detention, I remember completing it, and I remember Malfoy getting really defensive over something I said -no you don't get to hear it- and then… that's it." She lied with a gulp. She had just gotten a new string of incoherent and unfamiliar memories.

"He must have done something, I just don't know what…" Harry sat down at the table and Hermione did the same, helping herself to a piece of toast and a cup full of pumpkin juice that tasted oddly warm.

Suddenly a very large and majestic eagle-owl was swooping towards them and Ron ducked just in time for it looked as if it had aimed to take off his head, making a perfect landing.

"What the-"

Hermione reached forward and carefully untied the envelope from its leg. It nipped at her arm again and again but only after she cooed it softly did it let her take the green envelope.

As soon as she held it in her hand it took flight again taking a large piece of bacon in its beak.

Hermione looked at the envelope, a puzzled expression on her face. She had never seen that bird before. It wasn't McGonagal's, it wasn't hers, it definitely was not Ron's… She opened it slowly and took out a small folded piece of black parchment. She felt dread fill her as she looked at it but she unfolded it all the same.

Inside, the writing was silver and for a moment she was unable to concentrate on the words. _Thank you, _then at the bottom of the page…_ Twinkle-bee. _The words hit Hermione with the force of a brick. Everything came rushing back at once and as she sat there, she began to swoon. Ron and Harry both spit out their food and reached out to help her sit back up.

"What is it?" Harry asked as he read it over her shoulder and Hermione held it up to make it easier for him to read. "That's our password… who's this from, Hermione?" He asked and all she could do was shrug.

"I remember what happened." She said shortly and stood.

"Hermione where are you going?" Harry asked, jumping up after her, Ron right behind him.

"I have to talk to McGonagal!" Hermione said while hastening her steps across the hall.

"Why? What's the matter?" Harry grabbed her arm to turn her around and she ripped her arm away having a sense of déjà vu.

"Let go of me!" Running through the doors she ran as fast as she could to the transfiguration classroom. She broke through the doors and stood in the doorway panting. McGonagal looked up while pushing some papers aside inconspicuously.

"Yes, Miss Granger?" McGonagal asked, her face displaying confusion.

"What spell can cause this?" She asked while she opened her mouth and pointed to her tongue. "I woke up this morning with a terrible headache, I don't remember anything from last night, and my _tongue is blue_!"

"I see that. Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, please leave miss Granger and myself in privacy." She said as her lips formed into a tight line and her cheeks paled.

Ron and Harry reluctantly turned from the door and McGonagal motioned for Hermione to shut it and come closer.

"You don't remember anything, Granger?" McGonagal asked as Hermione stuck out her tongue once again and she inspected it more closely. Hermione shook her head quickly and McGonagal grunted. "Nothing odd happened at the detention you were supposed to serve last night? You _did _serve it?"

"Yes, Professor. Professor dark put Malfoy and I in a group and we cleaned the trophy room muggle-style. That's all I remember. I think he did something to me, professor." McGonagal nodded slowly and walked to her desk.

She scrawled quickly on a piece of parchment and attached it to the leg of her brown owl with the lazy eye. It hooted kindly as she patted its head and took off out the window.

"You need to come with me this instant." She said turning back to Hermione but there was not a trace of that kindness on her face now that the bird had gone and Hermione was suddenly apprehensive. McGonagal led her out of the classroom and down the opposite corridor.

"Professor, where are we going?" Hermione asked in a very small voice as she followed closely on the teacher's heels.

"Dumbledore will wish to speak with you and hear your explanation before you are punished." McGonagal's reply was short and simple and Hermione almost stopped dead in the hallway.

"Punished? What for? And Dumbledore's not here…" Hermione started up after McGonagal again when there was no response. "Professor," She began. "_Where are we going?"_

Twenty minutes later Hermione found herself in Hogsmeade outside the Three Broomsticks, McGonagal next to her. "Profess-"

"Quiet." Was all she said before firmly rapping on the door three times. Hermione jumped backwards as the door was flung open and McGonagal stepped comfortably inside the small pub, Hermione on her tail.

"In the back, Minerva." Said Madame Rosmerta through cupped hands and Hermione rubbed her hands together. _Who was in the back?_

"Keep up, Granger." McGonagal snapped quietly and Hermione hurried after her. She had no idea whatsoever about what was going on and it just got more and more confusing as it unfolded.

"Go in, I'll get us some drinks." McGonagal said and Hermione did as she was told. She pushed the door open with a loud creak and stepped inside a small, lavishly furnished empty room with a welcomely warm fire. She stepped towards it and took off her gloves with numb fingers. Holding her hands near the fire to gain the feeling back she sighed with gratification.

"Good morning, miss Granger. How are you faring this term so far?" Hermione jumped and turned around to find Dumbledore sitting in a chair in front of the fire. How she had passed over him was beyond her… He was wearing something a tourist would. He had small sunglasses over his eyes, a red ball cap on his head, he wore a tropical t- shirt that had parrots all over it and even more comically were his shorts and sandals. The only thing she recognized besides his small but strong frame was his waist long silvery beard.

"D-Dumbledore…" She stuttered dumbly. "Good, sir. Just great and yourself?" She finished with a forced grin.

"Well, that would depend on my health, which I must say could use some work. Caught a cold last weekend in Poland, nice facilities there…" He smiled warmly at her and Hermione could not help but feel relieved that she was here with someone they all trusted so closely. "Well? Have a seat, we can talk more comfortably." He said and Hermione nodded, the knot in her stomach loosening a great deal.

Hermione sat in the purple chair on the other side of the table and Dumbledore studied her very closely. "I heard you had an unfortunate accident that left you with a blue tongue…" He said and Hermione smiled while nodding. "I suppose its better to have one's tongue turned blue than to have none at all. Happened to one of my friends in our first year at Dutston's higher school for magical education… sad story, that one." He gave a soft chuckle that turned into a violent cough.

"You all right, Professor?" Hermione asked while leaning forward to help him. He waved her away and composed himself.

"No, no, I'm fine. I'll be better once Minerva brings that drink." He rasped. "So tired these days. Always having to stay one step in front of the ministry. I taught a lot of witches and wizards in my days, brilliant witches and wizards…" His voice trailed off and Hermione leaned back into her chair, settling.

"Professor?" Hermione asked in a small voice.

"Yes, Miss Granger?"

"Why am I here? McGonagal said I was to be punished yet I have no idea that I've done anything wrong." Dumbledore removed the sunglasses from his eyes and set them idly in the table. He rubbed his eyes and sighed loudly.

"I don't think it is fair of me to interpret Minerva's actions, Miss Granger, but I will say that unless her suspicions were founded you would not be here." The look on his face was one of great sincerity and Hermione could only bow her head contritely. "Now, would you like to tell me what has been going on?"

Hermione nodded slowly and found herself telling Dumbledore of all her frustrations. How she had only meant to get McGonagal the night she got detention but had been unable to defend herself in Malfoy's presence. How she and Malfoy had interacted that first detention, how he loathed her blood and everything that she was. But most of all she told Dumbledore about her worries about Harry. He had been places he shouldn't have been, knew things he should have had no idea about, and that no one ever saw him outside of classes anymore. This seemed to have Dumbledore on the edge of his seat for his focus was not even interrupted when McGonagal stepped into the room, three butter beers in her hands.

"Minerva, thank you." He said as if he had suddenly woken from a trance. "Come sit and join us. It seems there have been a great many misunderstandings between head of house and prefect." Dumbledore said slowly and McGonagal nodded taking a seat next to Dumbledore on the couch. After she set the drinks down, Dumbledore began relaying Hermione's side of things to her.

"What I don't understand is how Mr. Malfoy got our password Miss Granger." She said. "It seems highly improbable that Mr. Malfoy used force, seeing as how you are unmarked." McGonagal finished and Hermione flushed.

"What about spells, potions! He's good at that sort of thing!" Hermione absolved in a rather loud tone. "I mean, it makes perfect sense. He does a spell, gets the answers he wants and I wake up unable to recall one coherent memory. It's _too_ convenient to be unbelievable!"

McGonagal narrowed her eyes but this did not deter Hermione, not in the least. "And what kind of spell or potion could Malfoy have used to get past your self-cast memory charms? You are a brilliant witch, Miss Granger and no doubt went through only the greatest security measures to ensure your friends' safety." Dumbledore interfered tranquilly.

"I don't know! _Veraxus, probitus, _a Veritaserum potion? I can't tell! But he did something. I would never have told him our password and if you believe me capable of such betrayal then you might as well send me home today." She finished as she crossed her arms over her chest and glared tearfully at her shoes.

"That will not be necessary." Dumbledore professed in an exhausted tone after he took a long swig of his butter beer. "I will make sure that this occurrence is well-investigated and as always, I encourage you, Miss Granger, to delve into your memory as well, for we all know things that are never spoken hide deep within our minds waiting for the moment we will shed light upon them once again."

Hermione nodded as did McGonagal, who had surprisingly enough accepted this. "If you bring me one shred of evidence incriminating Mr. Malfoy, Miss Granger, he will be punished as our laws see fit." Dumbledore said and Hermione stood, sensing that their meeting was over.

"Yes, sir." Hermione replied with a short smile. McGonagal stood and walked towards the door. As Hermione stood Dumbledore called after her.

"Miss Granger!" He said.

"Yes, professor?" She asked while turning towards him and putting her gloved back on her small hands.

"Remember that despite differences, every witch and wizard is born with heart enough to be tolerant." Hermione nodded slowly and the worth of his words stuck in her mind as she left the Three Broomsticks.

She _had_ been rather harsh with Ron about the whole thing and the fact was he had acted just as _she_ would have had Malfoy said that to her. She hadn't meant what she said, not completely anyway.

As they walked through the small cobblestone streets of Hogsmeade McGonagal began talking. "I would hope that you learned from this whole unpleasant business and for at least a few days I would like to see you acting with discretion towards your and your house's reputation." And McGonagal did not speak another word until they entered the Great hall. "Dinner's already begun, sit with your fellow Gryffindors."

Hermione watched after McGonagal, who walked straight up to the staff table and sat down, not looking back at Hermione's stricken face once.

Hermione felt dirty, unworthy, as she made her way to Gryffindor table where Ron and Harry were waiting eagerly for news.

"What happened?" Ron asked putting his fork down.

"Yeah, is your tongue still blue?" Ginny added while craning her neck as if to see inside Hermione's closed mouth.

"I doubt it… McGonagal would have fixed that by now." Hermione replied briskly, a bit more harsh than she had meant.

"What's happened with the password? Who sent you that letter this morning?" Harry asked aloofly right before he shoved a large piece of bread in his mouth and took a swig of pumpkin juice.

"I think it was Malfoy, McGonagal doesn't believe me, and –for goodness sakes Harry, this is not the last meal you will ever eat! Slow down before you choke on your own tongue!" Hermione exclaimed her mouth hung slack in disgust.

"Finish what you were saying quickly, I have to go up to the library." Harry said through a mouth full of food.

"Well, like I was saying, McGonagal doesn't believe that Malfoy had access to anything that was powerful enough to break my loyalty to Gryffindor-

"Wait! _You_ told him our password? And _he_ sent that letter?" Ron asked in utter shock.

Hermione gulped. She had not thought this part of the story out that thoroughly. The look on Ron's face could have been applied so many adjectives that Hermione stopped thinking of them after angry, betrayed, flabbergasted, and incensed. "Well… It wasn't my fault!" She shouted suddenly feeling the need to defend herself.

"How is that not your fault? What could Malfoy possibly have had access to to make you tell him that." He paused as a new idea formed on his tongue. "And who knows what else you told him! About Harry, about me!" Hermione saw the look on his face and it made her want to cry. It said, "look at the Slytherin spy in Gryffindor robes…"

"I don't remember!"

"Convenient." Ginny interrupted.

This had to be a nightmare, Hermione decided as she looked at her three closest friends' faces. These were not the faces of the Gryffindors she knew and loved. These were Slytherins in red and gold, these were Slytherins glaring at her, staring her down. These were Slytherins for only Slytherins had the heart to listen without hearing, Gryffindors were always fair and loyal, Gryffindors always saw the truth no matter how farfetched the idea. Gryffindors knew eachother well enough to believe without proof.

Hermione met each of their eyes with a glare of hurt and frustration. From green to blue each pair of eyes said the same thing. "Look at the Slytherin spy in Gryffindor robes…"

Hermione turned rigidly and walked away from the table, her head held high despite the internal meltdown she was experiencing. She walked towards the large doors but slowly her direction shifted to a new destination. The Slytherin table.

Walking up behind him, Hermione shoved Draco's head forward and he leapt up, turning, ready to strike the person behind him that obviously had a death wish.

"What did you do to me?" She shouted. "What did you do to make me betray my house? A probitus spell? A sip of Veritaserum? Or could it be that you were fool enough to use the Imperius curse?" She knew she was ranting but at this point she did not care, all she knew was revenge, that same revenge that was causing red and purple spots to appear in front of her eyes.

"What the hell are you talking about, mudblood? I had nothing to do with whatever you're ranting on about." He said with a cool arrogant smirk that suggested just the opposite of what his words meant.

"_You_ know you did it, _I_ know you did it! I just want to know how, that's all!" Hermione yelled oblivious to the fact that more than half of the great hall was turned in her direction. "No words? That's got to be a first-"

"No, believe me, I have plenty to say, I just have to word it in a way that won't get me expelled." He growled through gritted teeth.

"Let's hear it then. I'm sure all your friends want to hear how you seduced a mudblood into confessing anything you wanted to hear… I'm sure they want another reason to praise Draco the great! The child death eater, destined for greatness." She spat. She saw Draco's hand twitch and for a second she thought he was going to hit her, but to her surprise and relief he held back.

"You're the one who took the fucking potion you filthy mudblood." He whispered dangerously so only she could hear.

"What potion, Draco? What did you give me that I can't remember a whole single moment from last night? Just bits and pieces like shattered glass." Hermione's voice was low and she was glaring at him with such loathing that she felt as though not even he could match it, but she was wrong.

"If I told you that," He began with a maniacal grin. "I wouldn't be able to do it again…" Hermione reached over the table and grabbed a pitcher of pumpkin juice. With only a second's hesitation she tipped the pitcher over his head and orange liquid ran through his hair, over his face, and down his robes making a satisfying splash as it hit the floor and puddled around his feet.

There were gasps and spurts of laughter throughout the entire hall and Malfoy was pissed. He shook his hands, flinging the orange liquid in all directions and stepped forward, his eyes screaming murder. But right at that second, Hermione felt invincible, Malfoy couldn't hurt her, he wouldn't dare.

"I would say you're a waste of my time, but I think it would be wiser and more truthful to say that you're a waste of oxygen as well, and space, and overall existence." Hermione uttered before turning away and walking out of the hall.

Like Dumbledore had suggested she would investigate and peruse her memories while she did it. She needed to go to the trophy room. That, after all, was the last real thing that she remembered and as good a place as any to begin her query.

It was with rushed steps that she made it up the stairs and through three corridors and entered the trophy room. Looking around the large room she realized very suddenly that she had no idea what she was looking for. She knew she was looking for evidence but what kind of evidence would Malfoy have left behind? A bottle perhaps? A misplaced object, or even a thought…

Hermione pulled out her wand and flexed her wrist. This was a new spell she was learning and she had never tried it in a real situation before but it was a useful spell, difficult to learn -even harder to perform-, but useful.

Waving her wand fluidly she executed the hand motions perfectly while saying, "_Acclaro grattia veritas de exuviae!"_ Her voice echoed in the small room and it went suddenly dark.

Hermione felt as if her body was being lifted from the floor and she began spinning so rapidly that the room around her became only blurred flashes of light and color. She felt her stomach rise into her throat and the nausea was threatening to overwhelm her when it suddenly just stopped. Everything went still and her vision cleared. She was slowly set back onto the floor and she wanted to fall to her knees but all of the sudden, her frame did not want to listen.

Then Hermione realized with a pang of horror; it was not her frame. It was Malfoy's and she was actually seeing through his eyes the night before.

Without her consent she began to move forward… where was she? Looking around cold scenery met her eyes. This had to be the Slytherin common room, no other place in the castle besides Snape's dungeons were this desolate or uncomfortable.

Just as she stepped through the doorway and out into the corridor a still image flashed in front of her eyes. In the image was a platinum blond boy with cold gray eyes… it was Draco before Hogwarts. He had an innocent smile on his face but his eyes, with their gray, empty depths told a different story… she could tell this child knew more than any child should know. With a stab of guilt Hermione felt something like empathy for that little boy and what he had become.

But as suddenly as the image had come it was gone and she was halfway down the corridor on the way to the DADA classroom she would assume. Draco made no stops on the way and ten minutes before detention started Draco arrived inside the dark empty DADA classroom.

Hermione watched herself enter the classroom and sit at the back. With a frown she realized how transparent she had been. How naïve she was to think that no one would have a clue that she was upset with tear-tracks down her face and red puffy eyes.

Once the detention started, Hermione just sat back and watched the show as it unfolded. They were partnered and began walking towards the trophy room.

As they walked random images met her eyes but there was one that chilled her from the inside out. There was Lucius towering over Narcissa Malfoy, his cane raised high over her head. But the thing that touched Hermione, made her choke back emotion, was the look on the young Narcissa's face and the small bundle in her arms. _Did Draco have a sibling?_ It seemed highly unlikely considering there had been no younger Malfoy enrolled or sorted at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry but there Narcissa was holding another child as Hermione could imagine she had once held Draco.

But before she could ponder anymore she realized that she was already in the trophy room. She allowed her attention to wane while they cleaned but as soon as their argument began she snapped to attention. She remembered this, it was what happened afterwards that had her confused.

Hermione watched in satisfaction as her other self yelled at Malfoy and got up to leave, but what happened next made her cringe, her blood turning to ice in her veins. She lunged forward and took herself by the hair, pouring blue liquid down her own throat. Her and Draco then dragged Hermione to a chair. They measured out a bit of clear potion- Veritaserum! Hermione could have screamed in elation had she been in her own body but she settled for watching in excitement and horror as she watched herself take the potion handed to her.

Then came the questions. They asked Hermione questions but the ones about Harry she refused to answer. How ridiculous, Hermione thought as anger filled her blood. What a filthy little mudblood… Hermione stopped thinking when those words formed in her mind. _What was going on?_ But the anger was not subsiding. Hermione felt frustrated. They had planned this so very well and here the muggle-born was ruining everything… _I am the muggle-born,_ she reminded herself silently.

After a few more unanswered questions Hermione took the situation into her own hands. They poured the whole thing down her throat and watched her squirm. There, that should make the whipped Gryffindor speak, Hermione thought in satisfaction and fear. She didn't know where these thoughts were coming from but she could not control their coming and worst of all, part of her liked them.

After more questions the muggle-born began to act strange. That was enough. It was time to end this quick and clean. She wouldn't remember anything if they left her here but as he began to walk away Hermione felt something, a flutter in her stomach and they turned around.

The Gryffindor was speaking and her words tugged at his- her heart. Hermione was all the sudden very confused. Was she her or was she Draco? _Draco,_ said a cold voice in the back of her head and she mentally nodded. She must be Draco. _You're Hermione_… No, Hermione was a filthy mudblood who couldn't keep her trap shut.

All the sudden Hermione lost all sense of herself as she and Draco's personalities merged, his taking over, dominating her. She could still see but she had no idea who she was or what she was doing with a mudblood at her side walking towards Gryffindor tower.

Leaving the teenage girl behind Hermione- Draco turned and walked down the steps. Walking down the corridor she stopped outside an unfamiliar yet cognizant stone wall. They felt the words form on their tongue and she- he opened her mouth to speak. "Vlad-"

_" Terminus defixium._ Enough!_"_ Hermione felt herself slam from Draco with the force of nothing she had never known before. She suddenly knew herself, she was Hermione, not Draco, never Draco.

Hermione turned to face him. This was the most angry she had ever seen him before. His eyes were just narrow slits, his face was tinged with red and he looked like a drowned rat. She composed herself and said the first thing that came to mind, a sly smile and the words, "We're even now, Malfoy. You know more than you should and I know more than I should…" But this, she realized was not the right action to take at all.

"That is NOT even!" He yelled crazily. His face abruptly flushed and his eyes were infused with so many emotions ranging from unbelievable rage, betrayal, hurt to sadness. "How dare _you! _How dare you, you filthy little mudblood!" He walked forward slowly, a crazed gleam in his eyes and Hermione backed fearfully away. "You have no right-"

"I have every right that you do, Malfoy, and you… manipulated me, gave me sedatives and a truth potion to make me tell you things no one else knows." She paused for a minute breathing hard through her apprehension.

"I know what that spell does!" Draco yelled and Hermione cringed. "Every thought I have had since last night, you saw… my thoughts… They deserve to be left with me." He said and his voice went quiet. "I have much more to hide, so much more to protect than the son of a mudblood St. Potter. I have secrets that would make your hair curl…"

"You don't think I know that? Remember me? I'm one of Harry Potter's closest friends! I know things that could endanger every student at this school including yourself." She said in a tone that was formidable to Malfoy's. "And believe it or not, I know a lot more about you than you could ever imagine."

Silence fell over the hallway as they both adjusted to the fact that they needed one another's silence more than anything.

"So…" She began and Draco's eyes met hers, a coldness emanating from their gray abyss.

"So what?" He asked. "This doesn't change a thing. You're still a filthy mudblood and I'm the son of one of the most influential men in Europe. Don't expect star treatment just because you invaded my privacy, in fact, you should expect things to get worse." He said with a thoughtful look.

"No, really? Is that possible?" Hermione asked in a sarcastic tone. "I wasn't expecting anything from you, not a damn thing." She said as she turned to walk away.

"Hey, Granger." He called after her and she turned back to him wondering what on earth he could possibly want from her now. He rummaged through his pockets and when he found what he was looking for he tossed it in her direction. Out of reflex she caught it in her left hand and looked at it. "You dropped it…" He said and then disappeared around the corner.

Hermione looked at the necklace that was now in her hands. It had been given to her by her mother the year she had been accepted at Hogwarts. Hermione's grandmother had given in to her mother when she was married. It was a silver moon pendant with a golden star above it and on the outside was the phrase our only daughter, our little girl in Russian characters.

Hermione carried it with her everywhere she went and she felt extremely guilty for not noticing that it had been missing… She felt a fleeting sense of gratitude towards Draco for returning it to her but in a whole other sense she blamed him.

"Thank you…" She whispered before turning around and making her way up towards Gryffindor tower where she would not doubt feel extremely partial to sleep. But, life works in mysterious ways and this time it seemed Hermione was fighting an uphill battle.

By the time she realized she was being followed it was too late to avoid confrontation. "Why are you following me?" She shouted as she turned around and to her surprise a sixth year Ravenclaw girl stood in front of her.

"I just wanted to say that what you did to Malfoy was bloody brilliant. I only wish someone would have done it sooner." She said and Hermione smiled. "The name's Amber-Lynn Solitaire." She added holding her palm outward for a handshake.

"I'm Hermione Granger and it is a pleasure to meet you." She said taking the girl's hand in hers.

"So, where're you headed?" Amber asked and Hermione shrugged with a sigh.

"I was going to Gryffindor tower but now I think I'll go to the library, and you?" Hermione inquired.

"Library too I guess, I have nothing to do." Hermione nodded. As they walked down the corridor Hermione discovered that Amber was a British muggle-born who moved to from West Chester England when she was seven. Her father abandoned them when he found out her mother was a witch leaving them with no money and no way to make a living.

Amber had three sisters, two of them were squibs but the oldest, the one who had graduated from Hogwarts two years before and became manager of the International Wizards department, was now one of the youngest witches that held such an influential position within the ministry.

Amber was proud of her family, Hermione could tell, and when they finally reached the library it seemed as if they had known eachother for years. It wasn't long before Amber got to hear the story about the other Gryffindors who were mad at her and why but it didn't feel like betrayal.

"Did you really use that spell? I heard it was really dangerous, the personalities start to merge and then your mind doesn't end up back in your body…" Amber saw the expression on Hermione's face and stopped talking. Hermione had been looking at the shelves across the library when her eyes fell upon Draco Malfoy.

"What's he doing here?" Amber asked.

"To read probably." Hermione replied and Amber smiled.

"Slytherin's can read?"

"A few of them can but only really easy things like first year stuff. Well, I should probably get up to the tower. I had a very long night last night." Hermione said and Amber nodded.

"Yeah, it's almost nine, I better get back to the commons so I can get some help with my astronomy homework, astronomy's a bitch." She said with a laugh and Hermione smiled. "I'll see you around, Hermione. I'm here to talk even if your other friends aren't." Amber gave Hermione a short wave and walked out of the library.

Hermione followed suit and went to Gryffindor tower. Upon entering though she got many stares that weren't exactly welcoming. Ignoring the glares she made her way down the steps and into the sixth year girl's dormitory where it was unusually quiet as she dressed and slipped into bed.

After a while the talking started again. "Is she asleep?" Asked someone from the other side of the room and someone bent over Hermione who closed her eyes and tried to breathe evenly.

"Yeah."

"Did you hear? She gave to password to a Slytherin!" Someone else contributed and Hermione rolled her eyes into her pillow.

"I heard she and Malfoy _met_ in the trophy room for some action and she let it slip." Said the voice of Parvati Patil and Hermione bit her lip in anger.

"Well, Hermione always struck me as the type that couldn't keep up the innocence charade for long. I always knew she was a little wh-"

Hermione put the pillow over head. She didn't want to hear what they were saying about her. They were telling vicious loathsome lies, spreading rumors that would ruin her.

Hermione felt tears burn behind her eyelids but she refused to let them free until she couldn't hold them back anymore and began to sob. She had no friends, she had no house. She was nothing, had nothing, no one except for Crookshanks who she hadn't seen since yesterday…

Hermione buried her head into her pillow and tried to drown out their voices by remembering a song.

_You say you wander your own land_

_But when I think about I don't know how you can_

_You're aching, you're breaking_

_And I can see the pain in your eyes_

_Says everybody's changing_

_And I don't know why_

_So little time_

_Try to understand that I'm_

_Trying to make a move just to stay in the game_

_Trying to stay awake and remember my name_

_Because everybody's changing_

_And I don't feel the same_

_You're gone from here_

_Soon you will disappear_

_Fading into beautiful light_

_Because everybody's changing_

_And I don't feel right…_

Hermione sighed and let go, allowing herself to sleep through the anguish she felt and held onto the possibility that tomorrow would be a better day.

Author note: That is not my song and anyone who knows awesome music will know that. Big thanks to Keane for being the magic musical gurus they are! (in case you haven't caught on, Keane's the band that wrote the song!)


	10. The Death of Lucius Malfoy

Chapter10: The Death of Lucius Malfoy

Draco had received the letter in mid-afternoon on Thursday but it was hours before he would open it, after all, he knew what it was and he had been ready for it, or so he thought.

Lucius Malfoy was one of those people you could tell weren't going to live very long and it was no surprise to Draco that when he opened the tan envelope, that Lucius had been found dead the night before. He did not let out one squeak, did not let one emotion escape him though they were there, bubbling just below the surface. He sat in his dorm Thursday night reading and re-reading every line of the letter as if it were a magazine or a book. He felt so detached it was odd, even for him.

_Draconis Aquilus Malfoy,_

_The ministry regrets to inform you that your father was found dead in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The cause of death is unknown as of yet and we offer our greatest condolences. His service, if you choose to attend, will be on September nineteenth at four O'clock at the Malfoy mansion. Our best wishes to you in your education and we hope that your father's generous and caring nature will live on through you._

_Cornelius Fudge_

_Minister of Magic_

Fudge's last words made Draco's blood boil. His father had not been generous; he had been clever in bribing the right officials, Fudge included, into letting him keep his position. It made Draco ill to think of how much of their treasury had been wasted on bribery and when Draco took charge of the Malfoy manor's affairs that would be the first thing to change.

They would do something productive with the money Draco would attain as a death eater, if the dark lord's reign lasted to that point anyway. Even without that money, the Malfoy's were sitting on a pile of gold as high as Gringotts itself.

"Will you be attending his service, Mr. Malfoy?" Snape had asked. "I could sign you up while you're at your first lesson." But Draco had only smiled while shaking his head.

"Why would I waste one more minute away from school than I have to? My father said himself that in times of hardship, one must concentrate on the thing that will get them by. He said it would be foolish to assume myself above education even in the most appropriate circumstances." Draco said coldly. "If he would have wanted me there, he would have died during the summer or over holiday, he didn't, I'm not leaving. They'll bury him whether or not I am present."

"Very well, I hope that this will not be one of those things you regret as an adult." Snape had replied just as lacking in emotion. "I will get a copy of the will to you so you may read over it yourself." And like that, their conversation was over.

It was only after he had lain down to sleep that the emotion returned and it was like nothing he had ever felt before. His father, the man he had known his whole life, who had always been there over summer, over holiday, was gone, he was gone forever, just like that.

Most of all, Draco regretted their last conversation. He was leaving, Draco had watched him pack his bags, but it was so unfair. Lucius had promised that their summer would go uninterrupted by the whims and crazy impulses of Lord Voldemort. Draco hated the look on his mother's face when Lucius left on his missions for Voldemort and there was so little Draco could do to make it stop, to make her pain subside. All he could do was watch her fear.

The night his father left he remembered his mother coming into his room in the middle of the night.

Her black hair had been pulled back into a long elegant ponytail and she wore her dark green and silver nightdress that he had grown used to after he had been accepted as a Slytherin. She had had this look on her face. A look that said everything was so wrong that she didn't know how to fix it all.

It was then that Draco began to hate his father. Loathing him for everything he was and even more for what he wasn't.

"You know it's not us." Narcissa had begun. "Your father had to go, he has things he needs to take care of that are more important than you, or I." Her voice came alive in Draco's head and he tried to block the memory.

"Has Lucius always hated to be here?" Draco heard himself ask. "Has Voldemort always been more important?"

"Shush… Do not say that name." She had reprimanded quietly as she sat down at the end of his bed. She thought for a moment before answering, "No, I suppose he hasn't always had the same focuses. But that was before you-know-who."

"Did he ever love me?"

Draco choked on his pillow as he relived every second slowly and painfully.

"Of course he did, he still does. You're his only son and that means more to him than you will ever know." She paused, looking at him through bruised eyelids.

"He hit you." Draco said shortly, cringing away from the ugly scar on her beautiful face. "He hit you again. Why does he do it? Why does he hit you again and again and again!" Draco had stood and was pacing. He was so mad he thought that he should have shattered.

"I shouldn't have talked back, it was my fault. I know how he feels about that sort of thing." She excused and Draco yelled at her to be quiet. "Don't you talk to me that way, Draconis Malfoy! I will not be mistreated by my own son."

"Father does it, why can't I? What is so different about it, mum? Is it because he's bigger than you?" He ranted.

"No, it's because my greatest ambition as a mother was to free you of the expectation to be like your father and in that at least, I have succeeded, or I should hope so." She admonished while standing. She walked to the door and turned back, her hand on the frame. "I do not think your father will be returning from this mission. As I've always told you, be prepared, and do not let his choices dictate yours." She finished with a short smile. "Oh yes, I will be gone for a while, good luck at school, Jessike will help you ready yourself, be a good prefect."

And that was the last he had spoken with her except for short correspondences between weeks. Just meaningless letters inquiring about school and his health. He wouldn't say he answered dishonestly, he just left out important details he thought she didn't deserve to know considering.

Draco admitted he shouldn't be mad at her, but now that Lucius was gone, who was there to hate? What was there to loathe, to make him so angry he could kill? Who was left but Voldemort, the ax that split his family apart long before he could remember what happiness was like?

Draco sat up in his bed and squinted his eyes. Reaching under his bed he grabbed his small but substantial stash of alcohol. _Why no drink everything away? Why should Draco Malfoy be unhappy if he didn't have to? Why grieve for a father that wasn't worth a penny of the money he had to his name?_

Draco stood quietly and grabbed his pants from the end of his four-poster. Pulling them up just under his hips, Draco paused to yawn. He buttoned his jeans blindly while grabbing his wand from his bedside table and putting it in his back pocket.

Draco pulled the first bottle from the six-pack and opened it with a flick of his fingers. Tipping the bottle back the bitter liquid met his tongue with a satisfying fizz that burned his throat. He knew that he shouldn't be drinking in here but at the moment common sense wasn't the only thing he was lacking.

Finishing off the first bottle Draco wiped his mouth vexatiously while grabbing another. Shirtless and slightly disoriented Draco walked down the dormitory steps six-pack in one arm and a fresh beer in the other.

By the time he reached the prefect common room he had drunk his was through three beers and started on another. Though his vision was becoming a bit blurred and his equilibrium was a bit off balance he felt as though his thinking was still quite clear for someone his age considering how much alcohol he had already consumed.

The fire in the grate was burning quite strongly, emitting a deep radiating heat that made him slightly drowsy as he stumbled forward into the dim room.

Looking around he noticed the lavished richness, which he had been missing out on in the Slytherin dormitories. There were four chairs and three couches placed strategically around the room. There was one blue chair and couch, one red chair and couch, two green chairs, and one yellow couch. It was then that Draco realized how truly large the prefectorial commons were. And there were still the two dorms per house that they were offered along with the badge and responsibility.

Draco staggered towards the green chair and cursed the fact that Slytherins had to be such loners. That was why there was no green couch; no Slytherin could stand being any closer to another than they had to, whereas the Hufflepuffs were the exact opposite. They had _only_ a couch for their prefects.

He sat in the soft chair and leaned his head back into the cushion. He felt unnervingly calm, as if his mind was readying for war. Setting the box by the chair he opened his fifth beer and slowly began to down it, closing his eyes to let the feeling of complete calm that he loved overwhelm him.

"Well, well, well… Why am I not surprised? The great Draco Malfoy turning _our_ respectable commons into a personal lounge." Said a very annoying and unwelcome voice from the doorway and Draco drowsily lifted one of his eyelids, squinting through the darkness of the room to see a familiar mudblood.

"Why don't you just leave? Go on…" He said motioning for her to exit through the in which she had come from.

"I'm not leaving, this is my commons just as much as it is yours." She snapped while stepping even further into the room. He could see the look of disgust on her face as she surveyed his unkempt appearance. It no doubt bothered her that he was not wearing a shirt and this thought made Draco smile slightly. "You know, as difficult as it may seem to be to grasp in your current state, Malfoy, your problems, whatever they may be, will still be here when you sober up."

Draco guffawed then took a swig of his drink. "I'm Draco fricken Malfoy, for Christ's sake! I don't have problems, I have everything." He slurred loudly but softly while he sat up.

"That's rich, I don't normally see men who _have_ problems drink like this." She said smartly.

"And what men do you know, Granger?" He asked spitefully. "Potter? Weaselby?" He gave a short laugh and took another drink. "I bet they haven't even gotten laid yet."

"Yes, _that's_ what makes a man." Granger said mockingly and Draco stood angrily while brandishing his half-empty bottle at her.

"Get the fuck out." He whispered but the tone behind the words stung, he could tell by the way that she recoiled.

"My pleasure, I didn't want to witness your disgusting display of lack of impulse control in the first place." Draco was suddenly so angry and he had no idea what had triggered it, but then again, it was Granger. Know-it-all, I-always-have-an-answer-hello-I-have-my-hand-raised Granger.

"Fuck you, Granger, what do you know about anything?" He half-shouted. He held the bottle to his lips and finished off the contents in one swallow.

"Nothing, Malfoy, nothing at all." Draco reached woefully for the last bottle and opened it. "It's funny, I actually felt as though I owed you something for finding my necklace, but you know what? You can go to hell, I'm done trying to be civil with you, Malfoy."

Granger turned to leave but Draco felt the need for company, whether it was unpleasant or not. "No, wait…"

"I'd rather not." She said crudely.

"No, honestly! It's me who's forgotten to be civil, come and have a drink or two." He offered innocently as if she could not decline his offer.

"You can't be serious?" Granger scoffed. "Alcohol is a vile substance that renders even the most admirable men into mindless and sex-driven jerks though I'd be highly surprised if you weren't there before you started to binge."

"And? Do you happen to have any more completely useless words of wisdom to share? I'm growing bored listening to you drone on, you're beginning to sound like Binns, you know that?" He paused. He was saying everything as it came to him and for once it he got to be brutally and offhandedly honest. "You really think you know everything don't you?"

"I never claimed to be any smarter than I was. Just because you are intimidated to think that a muggle-born may know just as much, maybe even more than you. You who has been raised and groomed to be 'perfect.'" Draco clenched his fist. _How dare she even assume what he was being groomed for!_ If only she knew, Draco thought wickedly, it would wipe that arrogant, know it all smile off her face in an instant.

"If you're so smart why didn't you do yourself and the wizarding world a favor and do yourself in? You're never going to be accepted, never!" He shouted. "There will always be wizards like me to remind you of what you are, unworthy of the name of magic." He would make sure she knew exactly what she was. A black mark on the world of magic, a blemish on the face of the Hogwarts' enrollment lists.

Tears filled her eyes as he glared maliciously at her and she clenched her small fists at her sides as if she was ready to fight him. "Go on, if you're going to think it so loud go ahead and hit me, I'll have your ass on the floor before you even swing." He threatened drunkenly.

"You're disgusting." Though she said the words only loud enough for him to hear it was as if she had yelled at him at the top of her lungs, called him every foul and despicable name there was. And then she turned around as if she was just going to leave…

Following after Granger blindly Draco stumbled over the coffee table that he suddenly noticed was placed in front of his chair and fell. He pulled himself up groggily staggering hurriedly after her as she left the commons and he called after her. "I'm not done talking to you, mudblood!"

"Well, that's funny, I'm done listening." Granger said thoughtfully as she nearly double her pace just to get away from him.

"You know what?" Draco asked and she whipped around.

"What?"

"You're such a bitch, Granger." He vociferated, his expression one of complete seriousness.

"How mature. Ten points from Slytherin for you being such a filthy little git." She said while placing her hands on her hips and glaring across the hall at him.

"Yeah?" Draco asked without hesitation. "Twenty points from Gryffindor for you being an insufferable know-it-all that is incapable of keeping her filthy trap shut." He yelled.

"Oh, fifty points from Slytherin for you even existing, Malfoy." She shouted back, matching not only his tone but his sincerity as well.

"One hundred points from Gryffindor for… well, just because!" Granger's jaw dropped and Draco was panting. Silence filled the hallway and it seemed as if Draco's words were echoing, repeating again and again. Draco just stood there, very satisfied with himself at the moment.

It seemed as if Granger was just about to retort but she didn't get the chance for someone was walking down the hall towards them. He saw Granger tense as McGonagal came near enough to distinguish and he could have laughed. He was feeling highly untouchable at the moment, which could have been due to his complete inebriation.

"Miss Granger, Mr. Malfoy? What on earth are you two doing up and about in the castle at this time of night?" She exclaimed in disbelief. "What did I tell you two?" She asked her mouth twitching slightly. "Explanations, and you better make it good." She added the option sternly as if she had not originally planned on hearing their reasons.

"I was going to go to bed in the prefect commons and I saw Malfoy waiting in there and so I asked him if he wanted to make a quick round of the school just to be safe." Granger said quickly while stumbling over her words as she tried to say them as quickly as she could.

"Yes professor, you know how much of a coward Granger is, so she begged me to go along." He slurred over-dramatically and the mudblood glared, turning back to McGonagal.

"That's right, but when I saw that Malfoy jumped every time there was an odd sound I immediately regretted it." She retorted calmly.

"You wish." Draco snapped.

"No, I wish that you would-" But she didn't get to finish her sentence.

"Enough from both of you!" McGonagal intervened. "Miss Granger, a word please."

"Yes professor." The mudblood asked, a familiar dread filling her voice. McGonagal pulled her over to the corner but Draco could still hear every word they said as clear as if they were standing right next to him still. The hallways were charmed so as not to echo.

"Why aren't you sleeping in the Gryffindor dorms?" McGonagal asked her voice not lacking in concern.

"You know why. They all hate me and I'm tired of them acting like I'm invisible, like they can say whatever they want when they think I can't hear them."

"I see." McGonagal said slowly. "Go on to bed and _do not let me catch you out of bed in the middle of the night again!_" McGonagal looked to Draco then at Granger then eerily slowly back to Draco. "What happened to Mr. Malfoy's shirt?" She asked and both him and Granger froze.

"It was too hot in the commons and I didn't have time to grab one." He said noxiously while yawning and stretching like a cat and he saw the mudblood roll her eyes.

"From now on if you are to make rounds, you will both be fully attired, robes and all." McGonagal admonished. "If not, you will face great consequences. Now, goodnight Miss Granger, Mr. Malfoy. Go straight to sleep! I will not tolerate this sort of mischief." She said with sickening conviction. You may be prefects but prefects are to use their power to reinforce the rules, not to break them." McGonagal turned and walked back down the hall. Draco saw the mudblood let out a sigh of relief similar to the one he had just released.

"Don't you ever defend me again, you mudblood." He spat contemptuously I'd rather get expelled and packed off to Azkaban than be defended by you." He said coldly as they walked back to the commons.

"It wasn't for you, believe me, it was for me." She replied just as coldly. "It would have been suspicious if we had just stood there with no answers and _I_ am not ready to be expelled, not after five years of perfect grades and hard work."

"I'm sure that _is_ the first thing you thought of, eh?" Draco snarled viciously. "I'm surprised it wasn't Potter or Weasley. _Oh what ever would they do without me there to stick my filthy nose in their business and boss them around?_" He mocked insolently while feigning distress. "You're you incorrigible, Granger."

"_I'm _incorrigible?" Hermione asked in utter dismay. "_You're_ the one that still holds onto cruel eighteenth century practices and the belief that all witches and wizards of mixed blood are _evil_." She said with a wicked laugh as she crossed her fingers in the shape of a cross in front of her and hissed.

"I never said evil." He replied, his lip curling into a sneer of its own accord. "Less than me? Yes. Unworthy? Definitely. Filthy, disgusting, grimy, little-" But he was interrupted by Granger's annoying yet narrowly soothing voice.

"We're here." Granger said shortly and Draco leaned against the wall a half-cocked smile still on his face.

"Good thing too, I was beginning to run out of vulgar adjectives to apply to _your_ kind." He said wistfully whilst pointing in her direction.

"I'm not surprised considering your lack of intelligence and your indisposed state of mind, but I suppose that is none of my business and I could honestly care less." She added with a spiteful smirk of her very own. "Hephalump." She said arrogantly but nothing happened and her shoulders slumped slightly. "God damn it, Hephalump!" She shouted while hitting the stone with an open palm, he could tell she just wanted to get as far away from him as possible in a short period of time. "That is the password, right?" She asked turning desperately to Draco who made sure he had that same know it all smirk on his face.

"Had you been at the meeting this morning, "He began jokily. "You would have received the information on the prefectorial quarters, Granger, I dunno if it's my place to share with you the confidential information that this little paper-" He began to dig around in his robes. "Has to offer." He finished while waving it mischievously just out of reach.

"I didn't get one, you prat, I was with McGonagal this morning." Granger said angrily while crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at him loathingly.

"So you say…" He began with as a sly idea came to him suddenly. "Say please or no passwords." Draco said with a half-serious grin on his face. "Please, is all I ask." He whispered quietly, almost tenderly and Granger bent to his will.

"Please just give me the fucking password."

"That a girl, didn't know if you had it in you." He said while shoving it into her outstretched hand. "I've got it memorized. The password changes every Thursday night at midnight, which is why you got in earlier. _Don't_ lose it." He warned and she guffawed as if his worries were completely unfounded. _Gryffindors are the ones that seem to have a tendency to lose lists of passwords when crazed fugitives are running about the place…_

"Gandalf? Ariel?" Granger asked interrupting his comically perceptive thoughts. "Who came up with these?" She asked in amusement as she skimmed through the list, laughing at the ridiculous passwords all the prefects had thought of that morning without her. "They sound absolutely ridiculous…"

"Had you been there you would have had a say in what the passwords were but because they weren't interested in eternum mortalis I suppose we should be gracious to embrace an eccentric wizard from a fantasy trilogy and a Disney character straight from the pages of virgins international." He said, reproval and disgust echoing in his voice. He was insulted at the so obviously Hufflepuff choices.

"Right." Granger said and he could tell she had only been half-listening, which pissed him off. He more than deserved her attentions. "Gandalf." The tapestry with the Hogwarts crest on it blew aside revealing a hole in the wall just big enough for humans to pass through but as soon as they entered it became solid stone again except for a small handle.

"Well, I guess it's off to bed for the little mudblood." Draco simpered coolly. "Suits me just as well then. G'night." But she had already walked into her quarters and slammed the door loudly, the sign on the door falling to the ground with a thud. "Don't need a filthy mudblood to ruin my night." He said quietly to himself. "She'll just put a damper on the whole celebratory evening… G'bye dad." He whispered while mock saluting the air. "Farewell, you served your purpose well you wretched loathsome beast." And not before long he had another six pack at his side and one by one he tipped them back drowning himself in the pleasures each beer allotted one like him.

But twenty minutes later he was feeling quite differently about the whole thing. He sat on his hands and knees retching all over the blue, red, and green 3000 thread count rug and to make matters invariably worse, himself.

He knew he was loud but he didn't really care, not that he could help it. He wasn't about to be courteous when it felt as though his insides were being forced into his throat and out his mouth. Granger would have to bear the inconvenience of listening to him wretch his pretty little Slytherin guts out all over their floor.

But after a few minutes he discovered that she wouldn't bear it silently. "Can you knock that off?" She shouted from her dormitory.

"I would if I could you filthy little-" But he was interrupted by another wave of sour, acrid vomit.

Five minutes later he heard her growl loudly and stomp to the door. Flinging it open with a flourish she stepped into the faint glow of the fireplace light and glowered down at him importantly. "_I _have lessons to attend tomorrow Malfoy, and the last thing that I need is to spend the whole night listening to you vomit all that alcohol up onto our floor!" She shouted. Granger brandished her wand professionally and said the incantation, "_Scourgefy_!" The vomit disappeared and she looked down at him as if he was dirt beneath her pink frilly slippers.

"Get up." She said sternly while grabbing him by the arm. He was too weak to resist so he just tried to help as much as he could. "Come on, just to the fricken chair, Malfoy, you can do it." She encouraged without any zeal whatsoever. "There, now sit." Granger finished forcefully. She rubbed her hands together and looked at him, no looked through him with her serious brown eyes. "Now first things first, you need to sober up." She took the bottle from his hand and he made a failing attempt to maul her.

"Mine!" He shouted loudly and she cringed only for a second before letting him have it.

"I am trying to help you, you pathetic little rich boy, now sit down and behave yourself." He suddenly felt like a chastised young boy at church. _Did she just call me a pathetic little rich boy?_ He realized too late he had said it out loud and Granger complied by adding a clever comment of her own.

"Yes I did, because you are just that, a spoiled little rich brat. I'm sure you're father is the one who bought you these and smuggled them onto Hogwarts grounds. _He_ is just as much to blame-"

"Don't talk about him." Draco murmured solemnly.

But Granger went on as if she hadn't heard him. "You need to accept that daddy's not always going to be here, I mean if Dumbledore…" But her words faded as her first statement hit home. His father _wasn't_ there anymore, he wasn't anywhere…

"Granger, can I ask you something?" He asked in an almost indiscernible slur as he looked up at her sadly through deliriously glazed eyes.

She gave a curt nod and said, "What?"

"Should I feel sad he's gone?"

"What are you talking about, Malfoy? Who's gone?" She inquired interestedly while changing all his beer into bottled water.

"My father… He's dead. I know- no, I _feel_ obligated to hurt, to be said that he's gone. He was my father for Christ's sake." He stated bitterly. "But you want to know the truth, Granger?" He asked, not caring if she did or not. "I don't even miss him, not even a little. I don't _feel_ sad that he's gone, I feel suddenly free."

He knew he was rambling but Granger seemed very intent on what she was doing. He doubted she was even listening and despite that he didn't even know if he was saying anything.

"He used to hold such a tight leash around my neck when I was a first year, but I think I grew stronger from then…" He said while rubbing his neck nervously. "I don't really understand _how_ I feel about him being… you know, dead and all, but I know it's not normal…" His voice became raspy and faded as he tried to keep from drowsing.

"Well," Granger said rising from the floor after cleaning up all of his sick up off the carpet. "Your father was not a normal man by any standards, was he?" Draco shook his head.

"He always seemed so… out of reach. Inhuman, you know?" He asked and she smirked. He had the feeling she knew exactly what he meant and it wasn't at all unrelated to him. "I don't think I loved him… Hermione. I don't think we cared about each other enough to really pay any attention to petty attachments, weaknesses." He stuttered inarticulately. "I feel like there's this hole where my emotion should be, like someone's run me through."

"You never really showed much of a knack for being very emotionally coordinated." She said, unmoved by his openness. "What in this Merlin's name makes you think you can start now?"

"I have emotions," Draco began rather loudly. "Just because I don't parade them around like you bloody Gryffindors doesn't make them any less existent." He paused as if to think. "Weakness, this is just a bout of weakness." He excused mildly enthused. "Dunno why I'm talking to you, not like you listen." He snapped.

"I am listening and what you're saying doesn't make a lot of sense." Granger lectured quietly. "You need rest, you know that. Stop whining and go to bed, Draco." She said while turning. "Quite frankly I don't know why you told me all this. You know it will end up ammunition for our war."

"I had to say it to someone, even someone like you." He said spitefully and she turned back to face him.

"And who exactly am I?" She asked while crossing her arms over her chest defensively.

"A bloody Gryffindor." He said and she nodded. As his vision finally blurred and he was lulled to sleep by her eccentric ranting, Draco dreamt of very odd things.

It was Granger, except she was in a dress, a really short dress, a dress he could imagine on a prostitute's body… Granger wasn't a prostitute… not in front of everyone else anyway.

_Please god, tell me I am not having sexual fantasies about Granger, _Draco mentally groaned. _Wake up, just wake up!_ This is what he got for getting drunk and having Granger be the last thing he saw before falling asleep.

But Granger wasn't taking off her clothes. She just stood there staring at him, slowly fading out of focus until she was but a white blur in the center of a dark as black room. Then everything fell away and was replaced by a jungle. Draco ran forward trying to push his was through the thickest of the underbrush but not before long he was caught and unable to move a single limb. It felt like the vines were curling around him, twisting, constricting to the point where he found himself unable to breathe.

He had to move on, he had to get away. There was something in forest he needed, something that was everything to him. He felt a sickening lurch in his stomach when he realized he couldn't remember what it was. But that feeling was soon replaced by an even greater fear. Death. It was coming over him like water rushing over a waterfall but it seemed as if time was being extended, but he could not get over the feeling that it was not for his benefit alone…

As his dream self became disoriented from lack of oxygen memories began flashing before his eyes. A first birthday, his fist broom, magic pre-school, his first trip to Hogwarts, his last, his wedding day, his last birthday, and his death. He hadn't even witnessed any of the last memories but they were as clear as if he had been the one seeing it all himself even though it was impossible.

"Don't die, Draco." Whispered a soft voice somewhere beyond his vision. Everything was growing dimmer yet lighter at the same time. "Find me, I need you. Don't die, Draco." The voice was getting further and further away the longer he sat there giving into death. He felt a particularly vicious vine wrap around his neck and he conceded sadly that this was the end of Draco Malfoy.

"Don't die, Draco." Came the voice again and suddenly Draco's vision came back with an all new tuned sharpness.

"No!" he cried out in a short gurgle. He ripped at the vine around his neck and pulled it roughly away from his flesh then began tearing madly at the other ones. "Let me go!" But as he fought more fiercely, they too attacked harder and quicker than before. But in the end Draco escaped gouged and scratched with a broken arm and wandered through the silent underbrush utterly alone.

He listened and he listened for the voice to lead the way. He needed to find the voice, he needed to or he would die. Tripping over a hidden stump Draco fell to his knees and cried out as a branch tore the tender flesh of his left inner forearm. Looking down he could have died from shock.

Beneath a fresh, bloody gash was a black tattoo, one that Draco had never expected to see on his own arm. It was a morbid skull with a snake winding it's way through the vacated eye sockets and the snake's head came out of the skulls mouth, its tongue sticking out.

He reached into the pocket of his robe and tore out the lining. Placing it quickly over the wound he tore his robe sleeve and tied the frayed strip of cloth tightly around his arm to prevent the wound from bleeding out. Afterwards he stood and continued on. It was grown dark again, so dark that visibility was reduced to three feet in the most.

Eventually Draco reached in his other pocket to grab his wand but what he pulled out was nothing like wood. It was cold steel encrusted with jewels. It was the Malfoy dagger. He had seen it in their family's treasury chambers deep below the ground level floor of the Malfoy manor. What it was doing in his pocket was anybody's guess but that was not his greatest nor most pressing worry.

Draco could feel something drawing nearer to him every second he wasted. It was still dead silent but he could hear the soft scratching sound of robes on underbrush so near that he shivered.

Suddenly there was a break in the darkness and the full moon shone through the clouds above the dank forest. Draco looked up and felt a stirring within. It was too late. He could not react with the dagger before he was bowled over and crushed by the strong, sinewy body of a werewolf.

Draco heard one loud scream of a woman before he was most likely torn apart limb by limb, but he didn't get that far before he was jolted awake by a soft touch on his shoulder…


	11. A Vandal Poet's Words of Wisdom

Chapter 11: A Vandal Poet's Words of Wisdom

Hermione could have killed him. "Get up you bloody moron!" She shouted as she tapped on his shoulder. Draco jolted awake and came to in a flash.

"What is it, Granger?" He asked groggily.

"Like you don't know!" She yelled. "Why don't you tell me what you did after I went to my dorm last night. I can tell you this, Draco, you are more creative than I gave you credit for." She spat sarcastically as she motioned for Draco to follow her. She pulled aside the tapestry in front of the commons exit and large dark words met his eyes. "Your handiwork, Mr. Malfoy. Your drunken filthy handiwork."

"That's not mine." Draco said. "I was asleep, I passed out while you were bitching my ear off about respect." He said and she tried to read his expression but as always it was indecipherable.

"A mudblood and a snake, a curse with two tongues, the Dragon is out of his cage and he's looking for blood. Patience is a virtue, or so we were once taught to believe, according to _him_, only clean blood is clean. Pure blood or mixed, a witch is a witch, if we were taught wrong make haste to the wench." She paused only to catch her breath before she read the next verse aloud. "Biting the hand that feeds you will make you no friends, using the Dragon is but a means to an end…"

"Looks like your writing to me, mudblood." Draco said coolly and Hermione laughed mirthlessly.

"Funny, I went straight to bed after I was done 'bitching your ears off.'" She retorted calmly while crossing her arms over her pink pajamas.

"How do _I_ know that? I was passed out-"

"How do _I_ know that you were passed out?"

"Bugger off, Hermione, this is such a stupid argument. _I_ know it wasn't me and _you_ know it wasn't you, now can we please move on?" Hermione was silent for a moment and then realization registered on Draco's face. "I meant mudblood." He corrected quietly.

"No, but you said Hermione."

"That set aside, you and I both know I am not that poetic. I may be dashingly handsome but-"

"There's hardly anything behind the dynastic face." Hermione finished kindly for him and he shrugged the insult off like one would swat casually at a mosquito.

"Your words not mine. Now, am I mistaken or do we have classes to attend?" Draco asked and Hermione was taken aback by his whole attitude. It was as if he had been hit on the head and had taken on a new, unrecognizably civil personification of Draco Malfoy.

"Yes, we do, but I am surprised that you would be so enthused after such a night of drinking and vomiting to attend breakfast, let alone classes. I thought you'd be groaning and whining your way to the hospital wing." Her face was dismissive but her voice sounded sincerely confused and she could tell he liked that knowledge.

"Constant vigilance, Granger, did impostor Moody teach you nothing at all?" He asked almost flamboyantly as he pulled his wand out from in between the cushions of the chair and pointed it at the offending wall. "_Scourgefy!_" The writing disappeared in a flash and he pulled the tapestry back into place, tucking his wand safely into his pocket. "I for one did not like taking on the physical appearance of a ferret, I learned rather quickly you see." He grabbed the rest of his stuff from the table and walked towards the door. "Good day, Granger. Have a mudblood of a time. Don't take it too literally although I'm sure you cant help it." He opened the door to the commons and walked out whistling a show tune Hermione recognized from the musical Moulin Rouge.

"What a prat." Hermione said, half-a smile on her face while shaking her head slowly. It was going to be an interesting day, she silently considered.

Walking down the Gryffindor hallway she entered her dormitory and looked around. Everything was red and gold except for the bookshelf, the coffee table next to her private lounge, and her desk. Above her headboard hung the Gryffindor crest and beside that was the Hogwarts crest.

The room itself was not very large but it was comfortable, even more so than the regular dormitories they were assigned at the start of every school year. There was a small grate on the wall that was almost always lit and Hermione's favorite part by far was the collection of books that filled the bookshelf. It seemed as if all of the material had been chosen specifically to be compatible with her favorite subjects as well as the ones she needed the most help with.

Walking to her dresser she opened the top drawer where she could always find her cleanly pressed Hogwarts uniform as well as some other clothing for weekends or her extra volunteer work at Hagrid's hut. Hermione pulled out her skirt, white blouse, red and gold striped tie, and vest as well as her white knee socks. Neatly folding them she placed them on her bed and walked to the bathroom that was regretfully linked with the Slytherin one.

After undressing, Hermione stepped cautiously into the shower and turned on the tap. When she finished washing she stepped out onto the cold marble floor and grabbed her red towel from the rack on the shower door. Upon wrapping it securely around herself, Hermione walked out of the bathroom and into her room where she dried and slowly dressed.

By now it had become an every morning ritual that could not be interrupted. After she brushed her teeth and did whatever she was going to do with her hair she went to her desk where all of her assignments, and course books were stacked in neatly organized piles. She placed her homework in their respectable folders and put everything, including her wand, in her book bag, which was bewitched to hold up to three hundred books but only weigh as much as three.

Putting her regular cloak on she threw her book bag over her shoulder and trekked down to the great hall for a quick breakfast followed by classes. Gryffindors had charms first, care of magical creatures and then double divination, which Hermione had opted to replace with arithmancy, nice old palpable arithmancy.

Reaching the great hall didn't take very long and once she entered the large room she made straight for the Gryffindor table hoping that her closest circle of friends had come to their senses and realized she was no more of a traitor than McGonagall herself. As she neared Ginny approached her.

"Hey, Hermione." She said uncomfortably while looking at her shoes.

"They're still mad aren't they?" Ginny nodded. "It's been a whole week and they should know by now that it wasn't my fault."

"They do, they're both too stubborn to do anything about it yet. I give it another day or too." The young girl smiled and Hermione nodded.

"How are things in the rumor department?" Hermione asked quietly and Ginny motioned for Hermione to sit down.

"Not so good, most of the girls, you know, girls like Parvati, still think you and Malfoy were having a good snog and you let it slip, but some of the other more mature girls are coming to their senses. I mean it's _you_. Why would you rat out Gryffindor to one of the people who you despise as much as they despise you?" Hermione shrugged. She wouldn't tell Ginny about the night before. No one else needed to know that Draco was human, not yet, anyway.

Hermione ate her breakfast quickly, occasionally staring down the table at Harry and Ron who were poring over a small piece of parchment, smiles on their faces. She wished she was over there with them, helping them with whatever scheme they were planning because it was obvious that that was what they were doing.

"Hey, Hermione." Said a faintly familiar voice from behind her and she turned. It was Amber.

"Hey." She said after swallowing her mouthful of food. "What are you up to?" She asked as Ginny questioned Hermione with her eyes.

"Oh, I just wanted to say hi. Haven't talked to you in like a week, thought maybe things had worked out." She said shyly while looking down the table. "But I see they haven't, I'm sorry for that." She said.

"Well, you can't expect too much from sixteen-year-old boys." Hermione said with a smile. "Oh, this is Ginny Weasley, one of my closest friends that are actually speaking to me. Ginny, this is Amber Solitaire, we met after I dumped that pitcher of pumpkin juice-"

"All over Malfoy's head?" She asked. "I saw that, it was hilarious, everyone was laughing when you left. We all thought he was going to kill you when he ran after you." Ginny said. "What did happen? Did he follow you?"

Hermione sighed inwardly. "No, I hid down the charms corridor then went to the library, that's when Amber saw me and decided to say hi." She didn't like lying but she was glad that they both bought it.

"So, are you going to go talk to Ron and Harry?" Ginny asked suddenly. She looked a bit apprehensive and Hermione raised her eyebrows suspiciously.

"Why would I do that? They're the ones that're mad at me." Ginny nodded while once again looking down at her shoes.

"Yeah, I get that, but you can't really blame them for being upset, can you?" She asked in a small voice and Hermione took to defense out of reflex.

"Of course I can, it wasn't my bloody fault, Ginny, now where is this going?" Hermione asked while meeting Ginny's eyes. "They want me to apologize do they?" She asked and Ginny nodded slowly, a frown on her face. "Well they can just forget it, I expect a full apology from them before I even look their direction again."

"Oh but Hermione-" The bell rang and Ginny heaved a great sigh. "You're all a bunch of nutters, honestly." She huffed loudly and walked away from the table, second hand baby blue backpack slung over her shoulder.

"You don't owe them anything, Hermione." Amber said and Hermione nodded sadly as she tried to avoid looking down the table where she knew Ron and Harry were getting ready to leave for the first class of the day.

"I know, but sometimes it's so hard to be right that I think I'd rather just be wrong…" With that Hermione threw her backpack over her shoulder and headed to charms.

"See you later." Amber called after her and Hermione waved back.

Entering the charms classroom, Hermione walked to the front desk and sat, placing her open bookbag on the tabletop. They had charms with Hufflepuff this year and for this Hermione was grateful. The Ravenclaws seemed almost detached towards both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff but to Slytherins, they paid an unspoken respect and mutual understanding.

Not to say the Ravenclaws were cold or uncivil, they just felt more comfortable sticking with those closer to themselves in personality, which Hermione herself could relate to. She often felt overworked with her friends' procrastinating and sometimes-ridiculous ways but in the end, the chaos was well worth the laugh or two they all shared at the end of the day.

The bell rang again and all the noise stopped once professor Flitwick entered and took his seat atop a small pile of books at the front of the class.

"Good morning class, so we meet again on a Friday. I hope you will not be too restless today, we have quite the lesson planned and I am afraid it will take all of your attention in order to comprehend the new material." He said with a wide smile fleshing its way across his face.

"You saying we're dumb, professor?" Asked Seamus Finnigin in a good-naturedly un-serious tone. "That'd be us, then." That caused the class to laugh and Hermione could not help but smile herself. Hermione would call Seamus the comic relief in their inner circle of Gryffindors now that Fred and George had set up their own joke shop in Hogsmeade and she had to say he was doing a hell of a job in that role.

"Settle, settle." Flitwick said jovially. "Now, pull out your books and open them to page one-hundred-thirty-seven."

"Illusion charms?" Hermione asked out loud as she read the title and Flitwick clapped his hands loudly turning to face Hermione.

"Yes, indeed, miss Granger." He said. "I am looking forward to your excellent performance, I'll be needing your help when Halloween rolls around this year." He then placed his hand over his mouth and gasped. "My, I've said much too much."

There were instantly whispers and private conversations throughout the room and only after Flitwick banged his ruler on his desk ten times did they all quiet down. "I would like you all to read through and write down the seven different illusion charms and what their purpose may be in modern wizarding society as well as why they were so important in the past." There were groans but Hermione jumped right in. The whole thing about illusion charms seemed genuinely interesting.

After completing her normal detailed notes she waited silently for the rest of the class to catch up. Once everyone was done and had passed it in, Flitwick went around assigning partners. "Granger, Potter. Weasley, Abbott. Parvati, Seamus…"

Hermione's heart seemed to plummet down into her stomach as she looked at Harry. He was gathering his things nonchalantly but she knew that once he got over to her that he would give her the same cold treatment he had been bent on giving her all week.

"Hey, Hermione." Harry said happily and Hermione was taken aback by his utter friendliness. "Well, someone seems a bit unfriendly." He said with a smile and Hermione nodded then shook her head to correct herself.

"Hi… I though you and Ron-"

"No, Ron. I have no qualm with you, that was over with almost a week ago, Hermione. I don't hold grudges." Hermione looked at Ron at the other table and saw that he was scowling.

"Is he-"

"Still upset? Yeah, but you know Ron. He'll bounce back in a day or two." He whispered and Hermione nodded. There was hope! At last, land.

"Boy, that's a load off my shoulders, I've been worried sick about how you two were getting along." Harry gave her a stern look and his green eyes seemed to look right through her.

"Look, I have to talk to you about something." He said very quietly, just above a whisper.

"Harry, we're supposed to be-" But she stopped in mid-sentence seeing the very serious and perturbed look in Harry's face. "What is it?"

"I put Malfoy in the Hospital wing a week and a half ago." He said and Hermione's jaw dropped. "That's not all." _How much more could there possibly be? _"I saw what he did to you, I wanted to keep an eye on you during detention and well, I fell victim to rage and in the end, retribution I guess." He scratched his neck nervously while looking at her for some kind of reaction.

"I don't understand. What would you have done to put him in the hospital wing and second of all what in blazes are you doing walking around the school in the middle of the night, Harry?" She asked and he held his finger to his lip to quiet her steadily rising voice. "It's not safe," She lectured and he rolled his eyes.

"I know, but in case you haven't noticed I like my friends a lot more than I like my wand. I was worried and it seems to have turned out that my worries were founded, look what he did to you…" He said and Hermione glared.

"And what is that, may I ask?" She said and her voice hinted that unless he wanted a fresh case of acne that he should walk on eggshells.

"You weren't exactly a social butterfly to begin with," He began and Hermione's eyes narrowed even further. "And well, Ginny told me that you weren't sleeping in the girls' dormitory at Gryffindor tower and that worries me. You've become a recluse since he did whatever he did to you."

"Now _you're_ worried about _me_? Is this intentional role reversal because I don't know if I like it, Harry." She said and he smiled weakly.

"Look, when this whole thing blows over, I want you to keep your distance from Malfoy, he seems to have a way of 'persuading' people to do what he wants, as you know." He warned and she nodded.

"I'm not thick, but thanks for your advice." She said bitterly and Harry sighed in frustration.

"I didn't say you were thick, it's just… it happened and now we have to be worried he'll try to do it again." He spoke even quieter now and Hermione had to lean forward to even hear what he was saying. "It's obvious that he has developed some sick obsession with you-" Hermione burst out laughing and many people, including Ron, turned to look at her as she giggled non-stop.

"Please!" Hermione exclaimed in a whisper after everyone had gone back to his or her own business. "Malfoy has no more of an obsession with me than a, a hound to a cat. We are polar opposites, Harry!"

"I wasn't implying it was a two-way attraction, Hermione. Just stay away from him, all right?"

"Look Harry, you don't have to tell me once, let alone twice. But you _do_ have to stop roaming around school in the middle of the night hiding under your," He voice went lower as she said, "Invisibility cloak. And you have to tell me what you did to get him into the hospital wing." She could tell Harry noticed the small smirk on her face and he trusted her with the information.

"He was alone down the deserted hallway around the prefectorial commons and no one else was in sight. I saw it as the perfect opportunity to get him back for being more than a bit rough with you." He said defensively. "So I waited until he let down his defenses and I tackled him. I was in my invisibility cloak and well…"

"Go on." Hermione prompted while checking to see what progress others had made on their assignment.

"I broke his neck, I think." Hermione's head snapped back in his direction and he looked almost green. "He flipped over and landed on his neck with the most sickening crack, and then he passed out…" He said and she could tell he really felt remorse. "I tried to help him but he… his pulse was gone, so I called for help and ran off."

"He could have died!" Hermione said.

"Hey, one less death eater to kill your family, your friends." He said darkly. "What?" He asked indignantly. "You can't pretend that I wouldn't have done the world a kindness in ridding it of another Malfoy." He said with a wicked tone.

"How do you know he's even a death eater?" She asked in a disgusted tone as she looked at one of the people she thought she knew the most.

"Does it matter? Malfoy's are bad news in general and who's to say he's not a death eater?" Harry said with a bitter frown that made Hermione shiver involuntarily.

"I cannot even believe you, Harry. This is so wrong." She whispered and he nodded slowly.

"I can't help hating him, Hermione. You've got you understand that the only family I ever had that loved me… they're all gone because people like him grow up to be people like Lucius Malfoy, and Voldemort, and every other death eater that has no problem killing innocent people." He said. "There's a reason I'm in Gryffindor, but thoughts like these make me feel as though Slytherin's where I truly belong…" His voice trailed off and Hermione opened his book to the right page and pushed it towards him.

"Take a break, Harry." She suggested softly. "If you think to much about something it becomes meaninglessly over-dwelled and it loses significance to those who it should be most important to." She could tell her voice soothed him even if her words did not and she touched his shoulder. He cringed, then relaxed under her touch. "What do you say to me and you taking a walk tonight, we can talk in the prefect commons." She suggested and he nodded, looking up at her.

"That sounds nice, I have a lot on my back and Ron isn't the most understanding person when he's mad at you…" Harry said suggestively and Hermione smiled widely.

"And what is that supposed to mean, Harry?" She asked playfully and Harry shrugged.

"Dunno, could it be that… he's smitten?" He said and Hermione shrugged.

"Why's he so mad at me still?" She asked sadly and Harry pulled out his wand and set it on their desk.

"Because. He's wounded, you broke up with him. And there's also the fact that you were right and he was wrong. But you definitely cannot forget the other information I have on him… He likes you so much that he has to equal or exceed your standards and he feels inadequate and not up to the job…" Harry said and Hermione guffawed.

"Who told you that load of rubbish? Ron's just as good at everything that I am…" Harry nodded sarcastically.

"Straight from the horse's mouth, I tell you." And with that, they went to work, every once in a while having a good laugh at their own expense.

At the end of class while they were cleaning up, Flitwick approached Hermione and sent Harry off to achieve some mundane task.

"Yes, professor?" Hermione asked as she packed her things carefully and neatly.

"Yes, well… I was wondering how you were doing with the illusion charms." He said a great amount of anticipation was bubbling over the brim of his demeanor and Hermione smiled.

"Very well, I think I do better with these charms than the summoning and banishment ones." Hermione said truthfully and he once again clapped his hands excitingly.

"You remember how I slipped up earlier?" He asked and Hermione nodded. "That was a distraction… what I really need your help with is the Yule ball. Don't look so surprised, it was so successful last year that Dumbledore- I mean Professor Atkinson has suggested that we hold it once again." He said quickly.

"When were they planning to tell us all?" Hermione asked with a frown. "The day before Christmas?"

"You see, it's all supposed to be hush hush, there will be a prefect meeting on the tenth of November, but you have to get those charms down pat, as well as the other prefects." He said, looking around nervously and Hermione realized she had to look nearly to her feet to meet his eyes properly. "I believe the only other prefect who caught on as quickly was Mr. Malfoy, he seems to be brilliant at everything I throw at him as well… well, besides that, practice makes perfect- oh there's the bell, be off now, Miss Granger." He turned and walked away and someone grabbed Hermione's shoulder.

She turned to stare into Harry's eyes. "Time to go, wouldn't want to be late to care of magical creatures with the Slytherins now would we?" He said sarcastically.

"Where's Ron?" Hermione asked as she looked around.

"Already left, he's probably already down at Hagrid's hut setting up, he's taken a liking to Hagrid this year, I think." Harry said but Hermione knew the reason he had left so quickly was because of her.

"You know what, Harry?" Hermione asked bitterly as they walked through the front doors.

"What?"

"Ron can go sod off, I've had enough!" She stated rhetorically as she stomped her foot against the paved steps. "If he can't come to his own bloody senses, he can regret it later, I'm moving on now. I shouldn't have to walk on eggshells because Ron's _sensitive." _She said mockingly and Harry looked in her direction in surprise.

"That doesn't sound like you talking, Hermione." He declared while running a hand through his jet-black hair.

"Well, Harry, say hello to the new Hermione. I'm not going to take everyone's shit all the time anymore, I'm tired of everyone thinking I'm just there to be trodden on." She growled. "I have feelings too and it's damn selfish of him to think the way he does. _Oh poor me this, pity me that!_"

Harry looked as though he was about to laugh when they were interrupted by the cold drawling voice of Draco Malfoy.

"So, the Gryffindorks together again, are they?" He asked.

"Bugger off, Malfoy." Hermione said while prompting Harry to contain himself.

"So now it's Malfoy, eh? I see how it is, mudblood." Draco said in a falsely hurt voice. "But then again," He began maliciously. "Once a Gryffindor slut, always a Gryffindor slut." He said and his friends laughed. They reached the platform next to Hagrid's hut and Hermione decided she wasn't listening but his next words were loud enough for everyone to hear. "I mean honestly. Once Weaselby gets done with her, Potter swoops in, will it always be a sickening love triangle, the source of Harry Potter's heartbreak?"

"Oh please, Malfoy." Hermione said. "We all just _know_ that if two Slytherins liked the same girl they'd tear her to pieces to be the first to get to her heart. Slytherins are just big clumsy blokes who forget to groom themselves properly or try too hard in your case Malfoy. In fact, you look very much like a girl today…" Her voice trailed off and there was laughter around the paddock.

"You're dead!" he shouted and there were gasps as he walked forwards, dropping his book bag off to the side. "How dare you even look at me!" He gave her a small nudge in the chest and her fist made contact with his side.

"No," Hermione said turning to the rest of the class. "Not even the great Draco Malfoy gets to hit me, it must not be love… I'm so very disappointed." Before she could say another sarcastic word she was on the ground. Draco had grabbed her ankles and she was now fighting to get out from underneath him. No one was stepping forward to help, they all wanted to see the outcome of the ultimate struggle.

Top boy against top girl, Slytherin against Gryffindor, pureblood against mudblood, it was the perfect fight. The outcome? Not even Hermione could say at this point.

He outweighed her by more than sheer strength it turned out, he was also much heavier than her and gravity was no friend of Hermione's in this kind of situation it turned out.

"Ready to give in?" Draco whispered close to her ear and Hermione brought her knee up almost gracefully.

"No, not in a long shot, you git." She said as he rolled over groaning in pain that only a man could understand. Hermione got up and dusted off her skirt while looking around. Most of the males had a half-admiring, half-fearful look on their faces. Draco's goons were helping him stand and he was whimpering insolently.

"I never thought anything you could do to Malfoy would ever make me feel sympathy for him, but Hermione, that was harsh." Harry said and as she looked around she saw Ron watching them all from the gate. He had grown much taller over their last summer apart and he had almost completely filled out his skeleton, though he still looked tall and lanky.

Hermione saw the smile on his face as he looked on and she felt for the first time in the past few days that everything _would_ work out. Things were back to normal. It was obvious that their little exchange of words hadn't changed anything between Hermione and Draco and that in itself was a relief. She would hate to have had to tell Ron and Harry they had to play nice…

Then again, Hermione didn't think that would ever happen, not now, not in a thousand years. Slytherins were Slytherins, Gryffindors were Gryffindors and it seemed a proven fact that things would always return to that same, sane and logical order in the end.

But the thing that Hermione had not counted on was a change of heart from the most unlikely of people. And like all good things, all bad things too must come to an end; Hermione knew this but who was to say it had to be now or even any time soon. Well, no one, so it didn't.

Hagrid walked out from behind his hut and spoke briefly with Ron before sending his off to join Harry and Hermione.

"Ron, what's he got planned for today?" Harry asked and Ron frowned. Hermione inwardly sighed; the look on Ron's face did not convey good news.

You'll never guess, I'll bet you." Ron offered and Harry shook his head while shrugging. "Well, I reckon it's not as bad as those skrewts in fourth year but they're not exactly peace driven, I tell you." He said as he shoved his hands in his pockets and looked around.

"Well," Hermione began. "What are-" She was cut off as there were gasps from the front, near the fence. "My god." Hermione whispered as she looked upon a face, or three, that she had not seen in five years. "Why on earth would he bring Fluffy out here?" Hermione asked in awe.

"He says she's tamed down a bit, but this right here contradicts his precious _Fluffy's _innocence." He said and Hermione turned back towards him, watching in horror as Ron pulled up the sleeve of his robe and revealed a bandaged forearm. "Its teeth barely grazed my arm, bled like a bitch though." He said and met Hermione's eyes.

"Gather 'round class, come on, no reason to be frigh'ened." Hagrid's voice boomed around the clearing and the class hesitantly moved towards the gate, Gryffindors in the front with Slytherins trailing doggedly behind. "Now, anyone know what this is?" Hagrid asked and three Gryffindors raised their hands. "Yes, 'Arry, 'Ermione, an' Ron, come up 'ere." He said and they took two more steps forward. "They've actually come face ter face with Fluffy 'ere a time or two." He said and their were gasps and oh's.

"_I_ used to have one as a pet." Said someone and Hagrid searched the class for the source of the comment.

"Eh, Malfoy? Come on up 'ere as well, then I guess." Hagrid barked briskly and Draco hesitated. "Now, Malfoy. I want you all up 'ere." He ordered and Hermione watched Draco whisper something under his breath to his two goons.

"All right then, you big brute." He said as he stepped forward and leveled himself with the three Gryffindors whom Hermione reminded them all to give him fresh glares of hatred.

"Watch that mouth a' yers, Malfoy." Hagrid growled quietly then told them all to pull out thier books. "Page seven, we'll be learnin' about Cerberuses today. As you all can see, I own one and she's the prettiest brute, y'ell ever see."

Looking upon the three headed gigantic pit bull she felt the same exact fear of the creature she had felt when she first met it in that dark room so long before. "Can anyone tell me the Roman myth behind Fluffy here?" Asked Hagrid and a few people around the yard raised their hands slowly as if they were afraid they were going to be called up to the front as well.

"Seamus, bin a while since you've gotten ter answer a question." Hagrid said and Seamus smiled widely.

"Cerberuses in mythology were considered the dark guards of Hades, or hell. Modern experiments have confirmed their natural instinct to guard but note their only weakness, soft music." Seamus winked at Harry, Hermione, and Ron. He had heard their story a million times by now and knew exactly what Fluffy's weakness was along with the rest of Gryffindor tower.

Hagrid clapped and nodded. "Well said Seamus. They're also native to England but at one point they were almost led to extinction from hunting in the seventeenth century…" The rest of the class went very well and when the bell rang Hermione hurried inside for lunch then headed off to Arithmancy, her new favorite class. It was hard, but well worth it.

As Hermione entered the class she sat at her assigned table and waited for Malfoy to arrive so that she could ask him what the hell his problem was. But she didn't get the chance because as soon as he sat down, class began and they had little next to no time to talk at all.

Today they were learning techniques for deciphering codes and even though Hermione had no idea what this had to do with arithmancy she excelled as always and was surprisingly enough, the second done with their in-class assignment.

Looking over to Draco, his cold gray eyes met hers and she stared for a moment into his all too human eyes. He looked real all of the sudden with a bit of dirt on his cheek from their care of magical creatures scuffle and he was hopefully sporting bruised pride. He had flecks of dirt in his usually perfectly groomed silvery blond hair and the look on his face was formidable to contriteness. Looking towards the front she allowed a smile to touch her face.

Malfoy was back on earth where he belonged and she was the one who had put him there…

She began humming quietly and she was sure he recognized the tune. Who couldn't? _I'm walking on sunshine, a whoa whoa, and don't it feel good!_

**Change**

**you walk the darkness alone**  
**demons and devils dance in your head,**  
**care and compassion you've never been shown**  
**lies and rejection is all your fed,**  
**you creep along the sturdy wall**  
**searching for the light**  
**then your bitten, and you fall**  
**melt into the night**  
**you no longer feel**  
**helpless and alone**  
**you know now your real**  
**into your world you've been blown**

Thank you so much to _suicidalrainbow_ on for letting me use her wonderful poem (yes I asked, otherwise it'd be plagiarism) this is so what i think Draco is feeling or what Hermione is assuming about him... 'inference' doesn't necissarily make an ass out of you _or_ me


	12. Granger and the Big Hairy F

Chapter 12: Granger and the Big Hairy "F"

Draco began to nod off as he waited for the rest of the class to finish. Granger had an arrogant look on her face and her whole demeanor was altered from the norm. All because she had kicked him in the most sensitive area of a man with force enough to make a grown man cry.

When everyone was caught up the professor collected their short assignment and walked to the front center of the classroom. In her hands she held an old piece of parchment.

"I received a letter from Madame Pince this morning stating that she and some other students had stumbled upon a secret passageway in the library." Professor Cameron said, her voice overflowing with interest. "You all are being given the opportunity of a lifetime today." She finished with a smile that made her look like a child in a candy store. "A single student from our class along with advanced ancient runes has been asked to decipher what are thought to be the lost manuscripts of Xander Validus who was not only one of the first pupils at this wonderful school, but a past teacher and headmaster." There was complete silence as the class waited for the punch line, the kicker. And so Cameron delivered.

"Each of you will submit an application to work on deciphering the codes of Validus, if that is indeed what they are, and you will be paid." There were murmurs of excitement and Draco leaned forward in his seat. Money was not something one let pass by with idle hands. "The student chosen from this class, the one with the highest grades over all, will be paid 1 galleon, 8 sickles and 20 knuts an hour every weekday after school hours and 2 galleons, 8 sickles and 9 knuts on weekends and holidays if that is how you wish to spend them." Draco noted the amount of groans and was quite glad that he was not among them who did.

Draco had high marks in every class he was currently taking and none of his teachers had anything less than exceptional to say about him for that was what he was, exceptional. The mudblood was writing feverishly next to him, writing Cameron's speech down word for word no doubt.

"I wouldn't worry, Granger, I have the best grades in our year, your DADA grade doesn't cut it." He said with a smirk of mockery touching his lips. This morning he had felt kindly towards her but that had changed the instant he was exposed to the public eye and he had no idea why.

"We'll see about that Malfoy. I wrote twelve more inches on our essay than was required." She replied hotly while smirking in his direction as she continued to write. Then suddenly the mudblood raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss Granger?" Asked Cameron and Hermione looked down at her paper.

"Is there even the slightest possibility that the winner can be paid in pounds and if so, how much would that be?" She asked and Draco could have laughed out loud. Why would a witch or wizard want to be paid in muggle money? But then again she came from muggles, they probably didn't know of any wizard stores around where they lived. _A real shame_, Draco thought sarcastically. The mudblood would probably make a fool of herself in the wizarding public any way.

"Yes, Actually, Miss Granger. That would come to, quickly thinking… roughly 3.9 pounds on weekdays and… 6.4 on weekends and holidays." She said while nodding. "You may want to look it up or do the math yourself but I think that it's accurate enough to go on for now." Cameron said with a smile and Draco shook his head while sighing. They were encouraging her disgusting muggleness.

Draco could have sworn she had read his mind just then. "Mr. Malfoy, can you tell me the process a spell must go through in order to be considered a successful one. Make it detailed." She said and Draco sighed, looking down at his notes.

"A certain string of magically connotative numbers is used to begin the process of creating a new spell and it must be calculated properly in order to discover the use for a spell. Once the use is established, a spell can only work when it is fully translated from code to Latin and then thoroughly tested for discrepancies in the code to be fixed later on during advanced testing. It should be mentioned that each arithmancist has their own code." Draco said as he skimmed his neatly slanted writing. "Once there is a translated Latin word the spell must be thoroughly tested in any given environment. The spells that fail are known as imperfect spells, or _alica trunco. _They are impossible to complete." He finished and leaned back. His heart was beating wildly and he felt dizzy. He didn't want to look stupid in front of all these people…

"That is correct. Ten points to Slytherin and I would like to see your notes after class, I may use them for this lesson next year." Cameron added with a pleased nod in his direction. "Now, I am going to pass out the applications and you will all turn them in by next Friday. I forewarn you, class, they are worth a letter grade." She said and with a flick of her wand the papers at the corner of her desk distributed themselves among the classroom. "You have plenty of time to begin them in class and…" But her voice faded out of focus as Draco looked over the application.

Full name… _Draconis Aquilus Malfoy. _Date of birth… _December 18th 1987._ Father's full name… _Lucius Callidus Malfoy._ List your classes and your current grade signatured by your professor… _DADA, Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Transfiguration, Charms, Potions… Have to find out my grades, I'll do that later, _Draco thought to himself as he put the application in his folder and packed his bag.

"Mr. Malfoy, what are you doing? Don't you have something I need to sign?" Cameron asked and he sighed, annoyed as he pulled his folder back out from his book bag and flipped it open. "You have a perfect grade in this class Mr. Malfoy, you and Miss Granger should have quite the competition going." She raised her eyebrows and smiled. She summoned her quill and signed next to his grade. He closed the folder and put it back away.

"Homework tonight is… Page three hundred. I would like you to do numbers four through nine. Translate the mathematical string into Latin, tell me what the spell is, and tell me what it does according to the numbers as well as its true definition from your charms book." There were groans around the class and Draco sighed. "I wouldn't worry, it's very easy compared to what's coming up after we learn the basics." She said banteringly and there were more groans.

"You may pack up now -no Parvati, that _does not_ mean gather round the door and talk extremely loud. It means stay near your seat and pack your things quietly, you're giving me a headache with all your chatting." Cameron said while rubbing her eyes. Draco noticed she looked a bit tired.

"Malfoy, could you please move your bag, it's on my papers." Granger said and he pretended not to hear her. "Fine." She pushed his book bag over the edge of the table where it smashed painfully on his toe.

"Fu-" The bell rang suddenly and the class flocked to the door as they scattered to their next lessons. By the time he could have caught up to her she was already gone and he cursed rather violently as well as loudly. "She'll get what she deserves in potions tomorrow." He said with a sly smirk that he was sure would have made her cringe.

Draco walked through the many corridors on his way to the charms classroom on the upper floor. He entered to find Flitwick already on a Slytherin's case. "You _have_ to do your homework in order to pass and you have to pass in order to advance. Mr. Goyle, I am afraid you are making no headway in this class. If it continues, I will have to demote you- good morning Mr. Malfoy, hope _you_ at least did your homework. You seem to be the only Slytherin in this class motivated to succeed."

"I have other jobs in line for myself other than magic, Professor." Goyle said darkly and the teacher growled something unintelligible under his breath as he walked away.

"Shut your mouth, Goyle. What're you thinking?" Draco asked as he smacked Goyle upside the head. Goyle grabbed Draco's hand and flung it away from his head while glaring. "What the hell's your problem, you git?" Asked Draco. "Don't fucking touch me again." He warned.

"I don't need your shit as well, Draco." Goyle said. "And it's true. What use do I have for charms? Once I get out of this fucking school Voldemort won't have me behind some desk doing busy work. I'll be out there doing something real like putting muggles in their place and stuff like that."

"And is that all you ever want to do?" Draco asked seriously while crossing his arms over his chest. "What about when the dark lord's through with you and you have the education of an ant? What'll you do then? They don't allow thirty-year-olds back in Hogwarts you know. This is a once in a lifetime chance." He said poking Goyle's chest. "Be damn glad you have it." He finished and walked to his desk.

"Yeah, sod off, you and I are meant for the same things." Goyle said and Draco stopped in his tracks.

"You can think that all you want, Goyle, but when I'm doing something worthwhile for myself and your serving Voldemort like a slave, I'll be laughing at you." Draco said coldly with a grin touching his lips.

"If that's the case, we aren't nearly as good of friends as we used to be." Goyle said slowly and Draco laughed.

"We never really were in the first place. It was a friendship of convenience, we both had something in common before. We both had domineering fathers and now… well, things have changed." Draco finished melodramatically.

"He's dead than?" Goyle asked and Draco nodded as he sat with a sigh. "Pity, he could have taught you to be a bit more like what you were born to be." He finished while walking to a different table all the way across the room.

Draco sighed a sigh of relief to see him go. He was rid of them, the anchors he used to call friends. He no longer felt like a fisherman trapped on the ocean with only one direction to go. Down. He had made a choice and he was positive it was the right one.

The final bell rang again and Flitwick marked Crabbe down for being tardy. "I see the fellowship has finally broken." He noted as he took roll and saw that Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle were separated by at least a dozen other desks. "Good, maybe there'll be some work done on Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle's side." Flitwick noted as he continued down the list of names.

"Today we will be learning Illusion charms." There was silence around the room and Flitwick seemed disappointed. It was as if he had expected a special reaction to his words but they had no particular meaning to anyone in this class. "Well, open your books, go on." He exclaimed and they all did as they were told almost uniformly.

"Read the chapter, take notes on the different kinds and be ready to test upon completion of this chapter." He said nonchalantly as he walked to his desk. "Get started you two! My goodness, you two have detentions after school today, two hours with me." He said and Draco smiled. He knew whom he was talking to and it was quite funny. Crabbe and Goyle were so indiscreet when it came to breaking rules that it seemed almost pointless for them to do anything at all but sit there.

"Mr. Malfoy, a quick word if you please." Flitwick said and he motioned for Draco to follow him out of the class and into the hallway.

"Yes sir?" Draco asked as he stepped out of the classroom, which immediately erupted with chattering from the Slytherin side.

"I am to tell you of a secret prefect meeting on the tenth of November to discuss the planning and execution of Hogwarts' second Yule ball." Flitwick said and Draco let out a short laugh.

"You're kidding…" Draco said and his smile faded. "Why? There's not to be another Tri-wizard tournament for… well, another hundred years!" Draco exclaimed.

"No, no, you misunderstand me. It is just merely a Christmas ball, there will be no tournament this year just as there was not one last year." He said slowly as if Draco was incompetent of understanding.

"All right, then what's the special occasion?" Draco asked. "And why are we starting planning so early?"

"I am shocked about how much you and Miss Granger differ. She wanted to begin planning much sooner and here you want to postpone it, it certainly _is_ odd how things happen, yes Mr. Malfoy?" Flitwick said with an all too cheerful smile.

"Not really… She's a Gryffindor, I'm a Slytherin. We have different ideas about different things." Draco said slowly enunciating every word mockingly.

"Yes, but you two seem to be on the same page academically, both always a page ahead of the rest of your class. The two highest grades in the entire school- but that is not what I wanted to discuss. You see, you pushed me off subject!" Flitwick said. "I want your help with setting up for Halloween, I want you to practice your illusion charms for use at the Yule ball. Every prefect is required to do so many hours of preparation and actual attendance."

Draco's mouth fell agape. This would not be something he could avoid like usual. God, he hated public functions… That he could attribute to his father he was quite sure.

Draco remembered one incident in particular that stuck vividly in his mind. He had been thirteen and they had decided to celebrate some event or another and, as usual, Draco was lost among the preparations. He needed a new suit even though he had three of them hanging in his closet still in perfect condition. His mother had said he couldn't wear the same suit to a different event, it was disrespectful to the guests in the sense that they should take just as much time and spend just as much money as the people they invited…

This had hurled Draco into a world he was ill prepared to handle but eventually he caught on, got the new suit, and dressed up.

The event itself was the real nightmare, he conceded thoughtfully. He had been all sweaty and upon being announced formally he had fallen down the stairs and cracked his head, ruining his new suit that had cost over three hundred pounds. Afterwards his mother and him laughed about the incident, but Draco's father had not been as light-hearted nor as kind. Draco was punished thoroughly and not in private.

Draco felt his cheeks begin to burn as he remembered the degrading things his father had said to him that day as he beat the sense out of him. His father, though he certainly had the means, refused to punish Draco with his wand. He said it was more likely to stick in Draco's mind if he did it with his bare hands, like the muggle men beat their wives, like he beat Narcissa...

"Mr. Malfoy? Are you okay?" Flitwick asked and Draco snapped out of his stupor. He ran a hand through his silvery hair and nodded.

"Y- yeah, I'm fine. So, November tenth, eh? I'll be there." He said quickly with a short frown. "Should probably go take notes, eh professor? If I need as much practice as you let on, I should work doubly as hard as everyone else."

Flitwick nodded walking back towards the door. "If only you didn't already, Mr. Malfoy. Keep up your good work, it looks good on an auror's application and you would certainly be quite the odd addition to the team." He said with an encouraging smile.

Draco let the word slide over his tongue, testing the flow of it's vowels and consonants. _Auror… I wouldn't be too bad off at all…_ But aurors went against everything he was raised to be. It was like deciding he wanted to be a Gryffindor all of the sudden. That though brought a smile to his lips as he entered the class and he could see the imploring looks of his fellow classmates.

Draco walked to his desk and sat down. Pulling out a fresh sheet of parchment he began taking notes, as detailed as he could write them without directly copying the text. The only reason he took such detailed notes was because he hated constantly consorting his book, it was bulky and very inconvenient to carry around when he used any spare time to study for upcoming exams.

When the bell rang Draco gathered his things quickly and headed up to the library for lunch then like every Tuesday they would all head to a short homeroom period. It was another new thing they had decided to institute at Hogwarts. It was a time for those lazy bunch who neglected to do their homework in their time off from that class to do their work. Draco usually spent the whole period reading but he had finished his current book and was thirsty for a new one.

Entering slowly he looked around. He suddenly realized he had no idea whatsoever what he was looking for. He usually liked to read non fiction but as he had reached the end of Hogwarts, a More In Depth History, he had gotten quite bored. He had the idea that he was looking for something fake but enthralling all the same.

In the end he settled on a book called Dune. It may have been a science fiction book, but the language used in the first few pages drew him in word by word. The language was so elegant and the words well-chosen. Sitting down at a corner table Draco placed his book at his feet and opened the book to page three.

_Within the shadows of his bed, Paul held his eyes open to mere slits._ Draco could imagine it, this boy, who's destiny had obviously been chosen before his actual birth, was expected to know everything before learning anything at all. In a sense, Draco could relate to the boy himself and considering their closeness in age, it was a perfect match. As Draco was pulled deeper and deeper into the recesses of the book he neglected to let his other senses sharpen.

"Hey boy! The bell has rung, head on off to class now you little mischief maker, I know your kind." She exclaimed while tapping his shoulder. Draco stood and asked her to check the book out for him and she sighed rather loudly making a rude comment that sounded a lot like _abhorrent_ _Slytherins!_

Draco placed the book carefully in his book bag and walked off down the corridors to the Potions classroom. Every house's homeroom period was with their head of house, in Draco's case, it was Snape, not at all the most desirably upbeat person one could ever meet, but a seemingly good man all the same. Though his sallow skin and sometimes morbid attitude towards students and other staff was sometimes seemed out of place in Hogwarts, the school, Draco decided, would not be the same without Snape's beady eyes staring over his hooked nose leering over their shoulders every minute of every day. It seemed like the natural order of things.

As Draco entered, his fellow Slytherins looked up then went back to work. He was nothing special to them; they all came from well-off families just like his-sometimes even better off families.

Draco took one more quick glance around the room and noticed that the only open seat was next to a quietly eccentric sixth year Slytherin named Heather. She was always reading or drawing or doing something creative of the like and that was exactly what she was doing at this point in time.

He walked over slowly and set his bag down at her table. She moved hers over after looking up at him then nonchalantly went back to sketching. Draco watched as her hand skillfully sketched over the page and the lines became something recognizable.

"Do you like people breathing down _your_ neck, Malfoy?" Heather asked, looking up and Draco glared.

"I was waiting to see if you actually had any skill or if you just carry that sketch notebook around for show." He said coolly and she laughed setting her pencil down on the desk while stretching.

"Trust me, sometimes I wish it were like that. Being an artist is so difficult." Heather said seriously and Draco guffawed.

"Yes," Draco began sarcastically. "I am sure it is so much harder than anything _I_ could ever imagine." He mocked. "Doing nothing but draw all day long and read, curse the creativity that dwells in an artist's mind and soul." He finished dramatically and Heather crossed her arms.

"Finished yet?" She asked and Draco shook his head. "Right, in that case, I don't care." He smirked and offered her his hand.

"Draco-"

"Nis Aquilus Malfoy, yes, I think we've all heard that name at one point or another. No need to get into all the formal introductions." Heather said interrupting what could have been considered an almost civil greeting from him. "I am Heather Holley, I used to go to a wizardry school in Ireland but here I am next to the famous Lucius Malfoy's son at Hogwarts, the most famous school of wizardry in this world."

"Right," Draco began confusedly. It was clever how she fit so much personal information into one sentence and he marveled at how well she had accomplished it. "I am Lucius Malfoy's son, but he's not famous any longer." He said with a smirk.

"Dead, eh?" She asked crudely and he nodded just as un-caringly. He felt as though it was easier not to care than to care. "Me dad was a muggle bloke me mum fell in love with a long time ago. Boy, I _hope_ he's dead." She said with a laugh while putting her pencil down on top of her book and looking at him she smiled weakly.

"Why's that?" Draco asked.

"Odd, you don't seem the type to care." Heather said slowly and picked up her pencil again. "Yeah, well, he left my mum and me when I got my letter from Comthionól Bhan Na Draíochta- school for witches of Druid descent. He said that he would always love me but that the whole thing was all too weird for him." Draco sensed a tone of bitterness in her voice and noticed that she was pressing harder on the pencil than she had previously.

"So, do you speak Irish, or whatever they speak in Ireland?" Draco asked casually changing the subject to a less personal level.

"Not so much any more, I've forgotten a lot these last few years, but I don't think I'll ever go back to the homeland again, so I don't think it matters much." She replied serenely. "You know, the Irish have a word for what you are." Heather said quietly and Draco leaned forward to hear her better.

"And that word is?" He asked with a smirk on his face.

"Actually, forgive me, it's two words and they are péist searbh." She said, the Gaelic rolling off her tongue with a native ease.

"And what does it mean?" he asked. The way she said it didn't exactly sound like praise and he was curious to know what it meant.

"Didn't I tell you? The Irish never give free translations, Malfoy." She said with a wicked smile on her face. "Guess you'll have to wait until I consider you a friend to find out exactly what you are." The bell rang and Heather stood.

"Come on, Holley, it sounds interesting." He pleaded while she packed her book bag neatly. "Just tell me really quick before-" But Heather shook her head and walked away.

"The Irish never sell out for a even a word or two of kindness from the likes of you." She began. "It makes it so much easier to be betrayed. Like the death eaters. They were swayed by visions of glorious things that no one could ever imagine for himself, but the trick the dark lord played on was the fact that it never really was going to be that perfect picture of lavished glory." Heather looked at her watch and sighed. "Good day Malfoy, I'm already late to meet my study partners."

"I assume that if they're Slytherins, they're going to be late as well." He said and the look on her face said that as a matter of fact they weren't Slytherins.

"I find Ravenclaws much more to my liking than the other Slytherins. They're not just plain ambitious, they have hopes and dreams like you wouldn't believe." Heather said. "And there is one Gryffindor I wouldn't mind knowing." She added.

"Let me guess, Hermione Granger?" Draco asked. "Why is everyone so attracted to that filthy mudblood?" Draco exclaimed. It was so frustrating. Didn't anyone know that mudbloods were the lowest creatures of magic aloud to carry a wand?

"Hey now, Malfoy," Heather started. "That is a nasty name for a human being. Be shocked if you choose, but you should know that your bloodline isn't exactly straight and proper either." Heather said.

"You don't know what you're talking about. I can trace my bloodline back to the fucking Roman Empire. Her- Granger doesn't even know where she got her magic from in the first place. That is what makes my blood pure and hers muddy." He finished and Heather nodded then shook her head.

"If that's what you think makes blood good or bad than I'm genuinely sorry for you. G' bye Malfoy." She paused thoughtfully and added, "when you finally get pushed off your pedestal make sure there's someone to break your fall." Heather said seriously. She gave a quaint smile and walked quickly down the hall until she disappeared after turning a corner. Draco growled under his breath and angrily grabbed his bag.

Entering the prefectorial commons he walked to the Slytherin armchair and sat, throwing his book bag down with a sigh of relief. He pulled out his homework planner and took out the books and notes he would need to do all of his assignments.

He decided his favorite subjects would be done first. The next day he had potions- that would be easy, then he had DADA, and finally he had transfiguration. He quite enjoyed all of these subjects and when he had completed the assignments in all three classes he started on his arithmancy homework.

Slowly but surely he discovered what each string of numbers meant, translated it into Latin, looked up the spell, and wrote a descriptive paragraph on what each of the spells were used for in modern wizarding communities.

Draco put his quill down with a complacent breath and pulled out his book. He could afford to waste time now. Draco thought comically of the situation that any Slytherin that knew him would be shocked to see him sitting quietly and alone, his nose in a book but what surprised him was that he was actually thoroughly enjoying himself.

At nine O'clock Draco set down his book on the end table and yawned while stretching like a cat. He was slightly disappointed that the mudblood hadn't shown up, but then again maybe she had been accepted back into her regular Gryffindork dorm. He knew it was none of his concern but he did wonder where she was. Then Draco remembered. He owed her a 'favor.'

Looking around the common room his eyes fell upon a desk in the corner. Papers and books were spread out over the top. Draco stood and walked to the corner. As he looked over the curvy perfect writing he let a malicious grin touch his face. It was hers and from the content of the essay and the length of it he discerned that it was her DADA essay…

Two hours later he walked up to his dorm, a smile on his face. He had done the unimaginable and he did it for more than one good reason. If she got an "F" on this assignment her grade would go down and thus her average would fall, leaving him in first place for the arithmancy opportunity. But on the other hand… she had wounded his pride and for that she would get an authentic, sneaky, sly and completely original Malfoy pay back. It seemed oddly fair though slightly wrong…

The next morning Draco woke late. He ran out of the Slytherin dormitory and ran straight into the mudblood.

"Watch it, Malfoy! Look what you did!" She shouted. Her papers floated to the floor almost gracefully and she began wiping hopelessly at an ink spot down the front of her gray vest.

"Uh, Granger, you're a witch, remember?" Draco asked and it seemed as if a light bulb had gone on in her head. She whispered something under her breath and the ink spot disappeared.

She bent down and began to pick up her papers, which had scattered across the floor. Draco smiled and took a few steps away to grab the ones that had floated further away. He picked them up and stacked them neatly in a small pile and brought them back to her calmly. "There." He said and she took them and shoved them into her folder. "Hey, aren't we late?" He asked and Granger sighed loudly.

"Of course not, don't be stupid! Have you forgotten how to read a clock, Malfoy?" Granger asked angrily. "You've gotten quite used to people reading it for you, I suppose." She finished as she stood. Her hair was in her face and Draco smirked. "What is so funny?"

"You're so angry and it's for no reason." Draco said shortly and she blew a stray strand of her brown hair out of her face while glaring.

"No reason? You run into me like hell was biting at your heels and knock my things about then laugh at me? And I'm mad for no reason?" She shook her head. "You're just like them, I'm always over exaggerating or worrying too much, does no one else see common sense? It's not safe to go prancing around the school after hours but does anyone ever listen to me? But _they'll_ be mad at _me_ when they're on their way home, their wands snapped in half!"

She paused and took a deep breath. "And where is your shirt, you think you can just run around here without a shirt on because we're the only ones who use the commons?"

Draco looked down and saw he had no shirt on and stammered, "I didn't have time to grab one, I was in a hurry. And what the hell is your problem, have you gone mad?" He exclaimed. "You better not have compared me to those other Gryffindorks, I'll have your head on a stick."

Granger laughed mirthlessly. "Because _that's_ the scariest threat I have ever received." Draco crossed his arms and his posture suggested mere annoyance.

"It wasn't a threat, it was a promise." He replied reproachfully. Granger bit her lip, a half-smile on her face, and nodded slowly.

"I would perhaps take you seriously if you didn't look like you had just had a good snog in a closet, but you know what might have been even more persuasive, Draco?" She asked a steely glint to her eyes.

"I told you not to call me that, you have no authority." He said while jabbing his finger in her direction. "Now, pray tell me what this persuasive element that I am missing is."

"If you actually gave a damn about anything that comes out of your mouth." Her smile faded as she looked at him seriously and they both were quiet. "It seems like you just say what you say just to say it. You lie, you cheat and worst of all you like it."

"I'm so glad there is always a Gryffindor around to judge us for being imperfect specimens of human beings." Draco spat sarcastically. "I like the fact that you always think you're right and how everyone else is always wrong. That would have to be the most dominant characteristic of a Gryffindor. Sweet arrogance. And you think Slytherins are bad for judging by blood, you've got judgment on everything else pretty much covered, that was the only thing left." He paused and saw the glint of anger in her eyes. "Look in the mirror Gryffindor, you're no saint. You've lied, you've cheated, and at some point or another whether it was subconscious or not, you liked it."

Granger glared fiercely in his direction opening her mouth as if to speak, but then, without saying a single word, it closed again. Silence ensued.

"You know, for two people that others find so similar, we argue a lot." Draco said quietly.

Granger scoffed loudly while shoving her folder and books forcefully into her book bag. "I tend to get the urge to throw up whenever people say that we're alike." She replied.

"Whatever, have a _great_ day, Miss Granger," He said with a chivalrous bow. "Don't cry too much." Draco said with a smirk as he walked back into the Slytherin dormitory to get dressed. She had shrugged his comment off without a second thought and Draco knew that when the time came she would probably sob like the pathetic fool of a mudblood that she was.

After dressing Draco headed off to breakfast in the great hall where he enjoyed a fairly small meal that consisted of toast and bacon as well as a few swigs of pumpkin juice that was always satisfactory to his tastes.

"So, Draco, do you have a date to the Halloween ball yet?" Asked a female voice from behind him. Draco turned slowly rolling his eyes.

"Do you even want to go there with me pansy?" He asked while looking down at her to meet her eyes, which were still the steely blue he remembered. "Because you should know that I'm not in the mood to go over this again and I, judging from your tasteless choice in wardrobe, am guessing you're not in much of a mood for rejection." He said this with a note of disgust in his voice.

She was wearing a very short rendition of the Hogwarts skirt, the regular shirt and tie, and knee high boots that were put on over what was quite obviously fishnet stockings. "You noticed?" She said joyously while touching the fabric of her skirt lovingly. "I took a few inches off last night, I came across a simple fabric cutting charm in our year five textbook and it worked wonderfully!" Pansy clapped happily and Draco sighed.

"I see that. But it seems you took off a bit too much off. Don't you think that some of the teachers might notice your terrible attraction to tactlessness and lack of subtlety?" He asked and she glared while making mocking head movements.

"You're just jealous that someone else asked me to be their date first." She said rather dramatically as well as loudly. People turned their heads to watch whatever was happening unfold and Draco could do nothing but a keep his calm. He wasn't alone with her and as much as he wanted to push her around right this moment he would have to hold back. Self-control was something Draco had and used in excess.

"If that were the case there'd be one very dead Slytherin, maybe two." Draco replied coolly under his breath so only she could hear.

"Don't you threaten me." She said dangerously and just as quietly. "Now, you can make this easy on yourself or you can make it difficult, either way I am going to make sure you suffer for what you did to me."

Draco took a step forward forcing her to take one away to keep a foot's distance between them. "What _I_ did to _you_?" He asked indignantly. "And what is it that I did that was bad enough to make you haunt me like the dog you are?" He asked rather calmly.

"You know what you did." Pansy said, her eyes narrowing even further. "I know you were cheating on me with that ugly little mudblood." Draco stumbled backwards and his mouth fell open in chock. He let out a slight laugh as even more eyes started to turn his way. Pansy had said her last piece a pitch louder than what secrecy could allow. "And then you left me… left me to be with her." Pansy let a fake tear fall silently down her face and Draco watched in astonishment as she wiped it away melodramatically. She was good at what she did and what she did was ruin lives- reputations.

"And who is this crazy boy that has 'asked' you?" Draco asked, while giving the quotation symbol and Pansy began to stutter a name incoherently. "Oh, _him_? I thought he was in Azkaban…" Pansy stomped her foot with a growl and shoved his shoulder as hard as she could. "That's what I thought. Run along now. Oh, and my answer's no." Pansy turned around in a huff and walked out of the great hall. He was glad that she had failed their potions class the year before and had to retake the course, she would not be taking it with the sixth years and so, there were two periods that Draco did not share with his vicious, borderline insane ex.

Draco knew Pansy didn't know it, but there was not going to be a Halloween ball. That had been a hoax in order to assure the Yule ball was kept a secret until the letters to parents were sent out. Since Flitwick had slipped about a ball, he had had to use Halloween as a cover up.

When the bell rang, indicating that it was time to head to first period, Draco stood and threw his book bag over his left shoulder. Walking slowly he took the time to notice how everyone else was scrambling about this way and that to get assignments done at the very last second and then there were those who still sat at their house tables eating.

There were more and more of them each year. The kids that didn't care whether they were late or showed up to class at all. They had lost all that they loved to the secret war that was being waged on their society and now they knew nothing. The sullen looks on their faces and forlorn stares gave Draco the creeps. How his father could have still looked these people in they eyes with his job at the ministry was beyond him.

When Lucius knew it was himself that had caused these people so much pain Draco imagined it would drive one insane, but then again, wasn't that what his father was?

Draco's mother said to Draco many times that his father had not always been that way, that he, at one point, had actually given a damn. But his ambition was too great to be checked by his own mortality, he needed to be led, to be used for greater things.

Draco believed her, he trusted his mother… She had gone to school with his father and knew him better than he could have ever wished to. Draco could remember something that his mother didn't talk about, something that he assumed was the reason she no longer shared a room with Lucius.

Draco turned another corridor. What Draco wanted to know was who Diana was. He knew she was a real person, he could remember her as clear as if she was still a part of his life but when he asked his mother who this girl in his dreams was she would soothe him and tell him not to worry about such things, the dreams would pass. And so they did only to come back time and time again.

He knew that she had long silvery hair not too much unlike his own but her eyes were a deep sea green. He had heard her name mentioned in many of the fights that his parents had had in the past and Draco knew that she had to of been important to them all.

Draco entered the potions classroom and sat at his normal table near the front. Looking at the board where all the supplies they would need for the day were listed, Draco took them from his bag one by one and laid them out in order.

Right before the second bell rang a very flustered mudblood hurried through the door, the potions master right behind her. "Go and sit do-" But before he could finish he was interrupted by the second bell.

"Yes, Professor," Granger said while hurrying between the aisles to get to her seat next to Potter and Weasley.

Snape was pissed and Draco didn't know why. "Why is Mr. Malfoy the only one in this class of sixth years capable of following the directions I take the time and care to place on the board?" Snape asked slowly and immediately there was shuffling around the room. "Ten points from Gryffindor for Miss. Granger's tardiness and that makes for a grand total of thirty points lost in the last ten minutes for Gryffindor."

There were loud scrapes of metal on stone as the Gryffindor side of the classroom turned to look in her direction but to no avail, her head was hidden behind her potions book, all except her bushy hair that was.

"Now, for today's lesson." He said coldly while eyeing the classroom with great scrutiny. "Chapter three. We will be concocting and testing a very potent but viable substance called a Polyjuice potion. As some of you probably know, a Polyjuice potion allows its maker to take on the physical form of another for as a little as a half an hour to as long as they wish to keep making it."

"Once you have all read the chapter thoroughly I will expect you to break off into productive groups of two or three and create your own draught to be tested at the end of class." He paused enjoying the looks on their faces then finished. "You will take one single hair from your partner and put in the draught. There are many things that could go wrong of course and chances are every one of you will experience this first hand." He clapped his hands together and said one final word. Begin.

Draco read the chapter in a matter of minutes and was beginning to mix the ingredients together when he heard a loud clattering in the back of the room and Snape looked up from his desk. "Yes, I assumed I would have to separate the Gryffindor dream team." He said nonchalantly. "Potter, work with Mr. Malfoy, would you? You'll be a lot less likely to screw up that way." Potter scoffed loudly and Draco cringed. "Now, Mr. Potter, I will not take your gift to the world attitude today. Yes, that means get up, walk to Mr. Malfoy's table and _work_."

Potter shoved his things into his bag, slung it over his shoulder and walked down the aisle. Tossing his bag roughly onto the table he threw Draco a nasty glare that did no more for him than it did for Draco. "Morning, princess Potter. _Someone's_ in quite the angry mood." Draco said in mock concern.

"Shut your mouth, Malfoy. We may have to work together but it doesn't mean we have to talk." He said and Draco had to give him credit.

"You're absolutely right." Draco said, a smirk on his face. Looking at his book he began to carefully read through the ingredients and place them out.

"Professor?" Draco raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy?"

"It says in our book that for the potion to work properly that the lacewings must stew for twenty-one days and the fluxweed has got to be picked at the full moon." Snape got a sour expression on his face and stood.

"Since one of you noticed, I will not withhold." He went the back of the classroom where large jars and vials were and brought them bitterly to the front. "You _must_ strain the stewed lacewings perfectly and let them sit to dry for twenty minutes so when you fist get them, start that immediately. As for the fluxweed, you may trust that I picked them fresh last night during the full moon." Potter guffawed rudely and Draco threw him a warning glance.

Draco walked to the front and grabbed the correct amount of lacewings as well as a handful of fluxweed. Sitting back down in his chair he went through and measured each ingredient. Leeches, knotgrass, powdered horn of a bicorn, and shredded skin of a boomslang. When he finished he began stirring them together in the correct order at the right intervals.

"Shit." Draco whispered when he realized he had neglected to strain and dry his lacewings. The potion would boil and burn to the cauldron if he didn't add them soon so he strained them over the sink hurriedly and threw them in without letting them sit to dry for twenty minutes.

An hour later Snape told them to add a single hair from their partners. Potter pulled a strand of his hair out and handed it to Draco and Draco did the same. Hesitantly while watching one another they threw the hair in and mixed it up well. They poured it from their cauldrons into cups and even though it was only about a half a cup of liquid it made Draco's stomach turn uncomfortably. He wasn't quite ready to be Potter and he doubted Potter was ready to be a Malfoy.

"Now, drinking every drop is just as important as how you make it, if you don't drink enough of the liquid you will only make half a transformation, which will not only earn you an "F" but a bed in the hospital wing for a week." Snape said and some people groaned. "If as many of you as I am expecting have made mistakes most of you will end up there anyway but let's get on with it, shall we."

Draco looked at Potter and Potter looked right back. "Cheers." He said and Potter gulped.

Draco tipped back the glass and forced the dank liquid down his throat with a practiced ease. After every drop was out of the glass he dropped it. He felt as though his stomach was alive and writhing. Then the odd feeling was replaced by a great burning sensation that forced him to the ground. For a moment he didn't know if he was going to wretch or not and for an even longer moment he didn't care. He closed his eyes tightly waiting for the sudden melting feeling and then, everything stopped.

He opened his eyes and looked at his hands. They weren't his. Looking up he met the eyes of himself but everything about the person across from him was different. The way this Draco sat was more eased and seemed softer. His eyes didn't look suspicious and he wasn't frowning, he had been successful and he was pleased.

Standing, Draco sat back in his chair and waited for Snape to notice that they had switched places and when he finally did he looked pleased yet disgusted.

"Terribly sorry for the arrangement, Malfoy." He said unable to meet Draco's eyes.

"Wasn't too bad professor and it'll only be for what, fifteen minutes?" Draco asked and Snape nodded.

"If you did it right." He added with a smirk. Draco gulped. He was sure that he had done it right… it wouldn't have worked so well otherwise.

But fifteen minutes came and fifteen minutes passed. Then thirty, then forty. At then minutes to the bell Draco was frantic.

Everyone else had changed back or begun to show signs of returning to normal. Everyone except him anyway.

"Professor, why am I not changing back?" Draco asked. He was tired of looking like Potter, he wanted to be Draco again.

"What didn't you do?" Draco shrugged. "Did you strain the lacewings properly?" Snape asked and Draco nodded. "And let them sit?" Draco shook his head. "Most think that if you don't let it dry it would thin the potion, thus making it last a shorter amount of time, Mr. Malfoy, but the truth is, it has the exact opposite effect on the potion. Considering how much you made I would say it will last another two hours, maybe three."

"I can't walk around school looking like, like _him._" Draco exclaimed. "How humiliating!"

"Mr. Malfoy, all I can suggest you think about is how much worse it would be if you were deformed by the potion…" Snape smiled kindly while placing his hand on his shoulder.

"And you don't call this deformation?" He asked and Snape laughed.

"No, I have seen much worse. Did you see that Longbottom fool? He'll be in the hospital wing for weeks, how he did that to the potion is… well, beyond me. At least you look presentable." Draco cringed.

"Go sit, Mr. Malfoy." He said and Draco nodded while letting out a loud and dramatic sigh. When he sat down a red-headed Granger was standing in front of Potter laughing at something he said. Then Draco looked to the back and saw the bushy-haired, tall and lanky form of Weasley who had a mad expression on his face and his arms crossed stand-offish-ly over his chest, which still had signs of belonging to a female originally.

Granger met his eyes and started backwards. "I think your shirt may be a bit too small, Malfoy" She said and burst out laughing. Draco looked down to see that his vest indeed had grown tight. His frame was much smaller than Potter's athletic one.

"Bite me, Granger, I like the new color but I think it is lacking in something." He replied dauntlessly.

"And what exactly is it lacking, Malfoy?" She asked while crossing her arms.

"And sense at all, that's what." Granger was still smiling when she turned back and finished talking to the real Potter. _Yeah, turn away…_

The bell rang just minutes later and Draco ran to the nearest boy's lavatory. He looked in the mirror and cursed loudly. There had been not even the slightest change in his appearance. He left the lavatory in a hurry. He was getting even more angry and his stomach insisted on doing flips whenever he looked in the mirror.

Walking at his normal pace, Draco made his way to the DADA classroom. Halfway there someone patted him on the back and said, "Hey Harry."

"Don't touch me." He yelled over his shoulder as he rubbed his arm where he had been touched by a complete stranger.

"Good day Harry." Someone said and he turned. It was that little kid that always followed Harry around during their second year. That kid and his damn camera. "Smile." He lifted the camera to his eye and Draco lunged forward.

"Don't you dare! Put the goddamn camera down you little-"

"Mr. Potter, is there a problem with Mr. Creevey?" Asked a severe voice from behind him and Draco turned. "What are you wearing?" Professor McGonagall asked, her eyes registering disgust as well as surprise.

"I'm Draco Malfoy, Professor." Draco said in a menacing voice while glaring at Carver, or whatever the hell she had called him.

"I see, Professor Snape's been doing the Polyjuice potion again, eh?" She asked and Draco nodded. "Well, Mr. Creevey, move along. You as well, Mr. Malfoy." Draco nodded and continued walking.

He got three more kind hellos and pats on the back before he snapped. "You okay, Harry?" Asked someone and Draco threw his book bag down in the middle of the hall and began shouting.

"I AM NOT HARRY POTTER!" He shouted and the kid jumped back and away from him.

"All right, see you later then." He said and scuttled in the opposite direction. People were staring and Draco turned to each and every one of them, challenging them with his eyes.

Draco sat down in the DADA classroom with a huff and slammed his book bag down beside him. When everyone was seated the bell rang and their teacher walked out of her office to the front of the room to take roll.

She went down the list with her thumb and occasionally called out names. "Malfoy? Is Mr. Malfoy here today?" Draco raised his hand. "Yes, Mr. Potter?" Draco slightly twitched and stood.

"I am Draco Malfoy." He said calmly.

"How did that happen?" She asked after she in fact confirmed that there were two Harry Potters in her class.

"Polyjuice potion gone wrong." Draco said shortly and there were laughs all around the class.

"You know it's a bad day when you come out of potions looking like a Gryffindor." Said Crabbe and everyone laughed, everyone except Draco and the Gryffindors that was.

"Thank you for that comment, Mr. Crabbe, but I am afraid the time to pass in that lengthy assignment you all have been sitting on for the last four days has come." There were groans and gasps and many other noises all around the room. "When I call your name please bring up your essay and set in on my desk." She walked back to her desk and sat. "Seamus Finnigin, you have it? Good, bring it up. And thus she went slowly down the list. "Malfoy, Draco Malfoy?" Draco brought his up to her desk and set it down with a flourish. "I look forward to reading yours Mr. Malfoy. I heard from some of the staff that you were applying for that job, do you have your paper I need to sign?"

Draco nodded and pulled a folded piece of parchment from his robe's pocket. "You have an "A" and if you keep up your over-abundance of work ethic your grade will only rise." She said and Draco smiled, pleasantly surprised. He had expected a "B."

He walked back to his desk and sat. He suddenly felt, not necessarily guilty, but something close to that. He knew that Granger had a "B" in this class and if he would have just left her assignment alone she wouldn't have even been a problem… But now her average would drop immensely… He wanted to say he felt like laughing but the truth was, he regretted it.

Then like a rock, the memory of what she had done the day before hit him. He no longer felt guilty, just like he had exacted the revenge she deserved…

When Granger went up to her Dark's desk he watched aptly. Nothing happened yet, but he was sure that once Dark got to it, she would not keep it to herself, Draco had added some very silly- even stupid details into Granger's priorly perfect paper and he was right.

"Miss Granger, what is this?" Dark asked halfway through their silent reading assignment.

"My essay, professor." Granger replied dumbly.

"I see that, what I don't understand is why you even bothered to turn it in." Dark said severely. "This is, by far, the worst paper I have read from a student in years." Dark stood and walked to Granger's table. Draco was laughing so hard inside that he had to rest his head behind a book in order to keep people from noticing that he was smirking like mad.

"Vampires have sharp teeth and red eyes and usually prefer to eat mudblood? I will not tolerate your dislike for children of muggle parentage in my classroom." She said while slamming it down on Granger's desk.

"I didn't write that!" Granger sputtered while turning the paper towards herself so she could read it. "This _is not_ my paper." She said as she skimmed. Then she looked up, searching the class for him, her eyes sought his and he hid his face as she bit her lip.

"It's your writing, Miss Granger and if I am not mistaken your vocabulary and word usage as well." Dark said.

"Yes, it seems that way but Professor, I did not- would not ever write this. I am of muggle heritage. My mother and father use toasters and vacuum cleaners as much as every other muggle does." Hermione said.

"And that is what makes it all the more disgusting. Who else would write this and a better question is why someone would want to sabotage your assignment?" She paused looking at Granger a glint that even he could see in her eyes. "I will have this sent to your dear parents so that they may see what great things their daughter learns at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They will no doubt be pleased at your high level of education." Dark said and Draco frowned. She was carrying this a lot farther than he thought she would. "Miss Granger this paper deserves and will receive no less than an "F."

Draco and the rest of the class paused. There was no possible way that this would turn out well at all…


	13. The Beginning

FINALLY! SORRY PEOPLE. DURING CHAPTER THIRTEEN MY LIFE WENT THROUGH MANY PROBLEMS FIRST AND FOREMOST I BLAME ON MR. WRITER'S BLOCK, MY ARCH NEMESIS.THEN I WOULD HAVE TO BLAME MYSELF. I PLANNED TO HAVE THIS CHAPTER, THE ONE AFTER IT, AND THE ONE BEFORE IT AS ONE. IWAY OVER EXTENDED MYSELF AND I AM SURE THAT THIS CHAPTER UNDEIVIDED WOULD HAVE BEEN WELL OVER THIRTY THOUSAND WORDS... AND THAT WOULD HAVE TAKEN FOREVER. SO, HERE IT IS AND IF IT SEEMS INCOMPLETE AND YOU DON'T LIKE IT... **_BITE ME!_**

Chapter 13: The Beginning

"An "F?" Hermione asked breathlessly, her hands falling to her sides in disbelief. "An F." She stuttered. Her hands began to shake as her blood rushed through her body and her face warmed considerably. "F"…" her voice trailed off and she sat down.

Dark began walking to the front of the class but Hermione could only see the red spots in front of her eyes. Suddenly she stood and banged her fist on the desk as hard as she could.

"I _did not _write that paper, it should not count against _my_ grade." She said resolutely." Hermione could not accept this.

"And whose grade _should_ it count against? You handed it in, Miss Granger, and you will take the grade I give you." Dark waited for an angry reply but Hermione just sat down, glancing tearfully at Malfoy, who may have _looked_ like her best friend at the moment, but was nothing at all like him.

She knew that he was the one who had changed her paper. He was the only one with access to the prefect commons and he certainly had a grudge. But Hermione knew that she had to resign to the facts. There was no way to prove it.

Hermione returned to reading but Harry and Ron couldn't let things sit. "Professor, does that mean none of us get credit?" Harry shouted.

"Why would I give you all an "F" when Miss Granger is the one who wrote the paper?" Dark asked quietly as she turned her chair, idly looking up at them.

"Because, if Hermione got an "F" than there is no way anyone got a better score or even a score at all. She is the smartest sixth year out of all of us." Ron said and there were quiet whispers of agreement from the Gryffindor side while the Slytherin side erupted in boo's and vulgar comments.

"That is not true. There is one student in this class that had already topped Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley. Draco Malfoy is the only student in this class with an "A" and he certainly, though he may look like a Gryffindor of sorts right now, is not Miss Granger." Dark replied smugly. "Now. Get back to work please, we have much to learn in these next few days and I don't need students' blatant arrogance to contend with as well."

Hermione gave Ron a weak smile. "There could be worse things, I suppose." She said sadly and Ron shook his head.

"Like what? This assignment was huge- massive! And can you even imagine how much this will lower your grade? This will put you out of the running for that job you wanted so badly…" Hermione nodded. She was at least glad he was so concerned.

"That's so unfair, what a wench." Harry added and suddenly Hermione realized how grateful she was to have her two best friends back on her side.

"No big deal you guys, at least she didn't mark you both down." She said and she was completely and surprisingly sincere. "Come on; let's finish reading before she has more reason to mark us down further." Hermione suggested and the other two complied.

"Don't know how that git got a better grade than you, do you reckon he's snogging Dark?" Ron asked after a few minutes of reading. It was obvious he had been brooding, something Ron was very good at.

"Do you think Dark's stupid, Ron?" Hermione asked. "And besides that, she's not his type."

They and Harry shared a secret laugh at Professor Dark's expense as well as Draco's. Gone were the days when Hermione would defend him. She was now very positive that he could handle that all on his own, and if not, he could expect a lot of problems from Hogwarts' favorite Gryffindors. He may have gotten the job, but Draco's hell was just beginning. From Harry and Ron's side of it anyway…

Hermione heard stories over the next few days that made her laugh like she had never laughed before. But eventually the pranks lost their fun and became senseless acts of loathing. Harry and Ron were having the time of their lives though and she had not the heart to ask them to cease.

She could tell Draco was miserable and she felt a certain sense of satisfaction whenever she had class with him to see him in his current state.

On the morning of the day that they would find out who got the job for arithmancy Hermione felt unusually jittery. Even though her chances were minuscule since her grade in DADA had dropped, she still hoped. It was a great opportunity and if Draco got it, it would only reinforce the subconscious ideal that pure bloods were better groomed for such things.

Going through the day normally was probably the hardest thing Hermione had had to do in a while. Sure, she had done much more before but this was solely for herself and on those rare occasions she tended to find difficulty in concentrating.

Entering the Arithmancy classroom for double arithmancy, Hermione walked to hers and Draco's table and sat down.

She had been the first to turn in her application and Cameron had not been very pleased with her DADA grade. When Hermione explained what happened Cameron had nodded saying everything would be cleared up, if not by her than by McGonagall. This is what had given Hermione her boost of hope and gotten her through the past few days.

Draco walked in minutes before the bell rang and sat doggedly in his seat. Hermione threw him a smug but furtive glance and the look that he returned, she swore, could have killed her. "Having a nice day?" She asked smartly and Draco growled something under his breath.

"It'd be even nicer if your friends left me alone. They're asking for it." He said slowly. "I've already taken the maximum amount of points a prefect can take from a house in a single day and they just keep coming back for more. I figure it'll all add up to about a thousand at the end of the year when they take the block off the hourglasses." He added and Hermione laughed.

"I doubt they will allow you to take that many points for getting what you deserve." Hermione replied. "You shouldn't have done it and now… well, you get what you and I both know is equal retribution."

"No, equal retribution would be turning my hair blue or putting tacks on my seat, something like that." He said while turning to face her. His gray eyes bore into hers and she felt her stomach clench. He was tired. "What they're doing is harassment and if it doesn't stop I'll make sure that if they _are_ aloud to go to the ball they won't be able to enjoy themselves."

"As intimidating as your threats are, Malfoy, as you've proven to us all at one point or another, your threats mean no more than anything else you say." Hermione said through gritted teeth. "You cower like a beaten dog when you're confronted by anything you did not instigate yourself."

"I concede your point, Granger, but all in all I am fully capable of exacting my revenge, as you have experienced first hand." Draco replied wisely.

"Yeah, you have guts," Hermione said and the shocked expression on his face was enough to make her finish. "When it's girls you're 'exacting your revenge on.'" Draco nodded with a flagrant smile spreading across his face as he turned his eyes back to the front.

"Wait and see." She heard him whisper under his breath. The bell rang before she could say more and Cameron walked into the room, a large folder under her arm.

"I hope it's not more of the stupid portfolios, those were a major waste of time." Hermione said, dread filling her chest.

"Hello class. How are you all today?" There were mumbles around the room and Hermione raised her hand. "Have something specific to share with us, Miss Granger?" Cameron asked and Hermione shook her head.

"I just wanted to know if you had read through all of the applications and made a decision yet." She said and there were murmurs of equal interest.

"Yes, Madame Pince and I spent the past week reading through all of your applications and have reached a final decision." Cameron announced and the room, if possible, went even quieter. "I would first like to say that some of you had very exceptional applications, some of you had less than exceptional, and an even smaller amount of you neglected to turn them in at all, which frustrates me to no end. The assignment was essentially a free, hundred points." She paused giving a stern look around the room. The students who squirmed in their seats, Hermione assumed, were the ones who didn't turn theirs in.

"Now, I doubt it will come as a surprise to any of you that our first choice was Mr. Draco Malfoy, our sixth year Slytherin prefect." She said and Hermione's heart plummeted. That was it, he had won. There were cheers, boo's, and every other sound a group of teenagers could make without being too immature. Hermione took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, calmly. "But, our decision, we realized, needed to be based upon the fully rounded student we were choosing and that would mean coming to the obvious conclusion that two of you would have to be chosen." Hermione was now fully alert again. She had a feeling that this whole thing would turn around. But it also seemed as if that was what every other student was thinking as well for it was dead silent in the classroom, something that it hadn't been for a month.

"Miss Granger, you have been chosen as well. You and Mr. Malfoy will be splitting the wages since we cannot afford to pay two full separate wages but I doubt it was about the money to you." Cameron gave Hermione a short wink and Hermione smiled. She should have had more faith. In her _and_ in Cameron. "Two prefects," Cameron began. "That certainly should be incentive to be an exceptional all around student… Mr. Malfoy, Miss Granger, could you both please meet me after class today so that I may show you your work space, explain the rules, and give you a list of the passwords. I will also need to introduce you to the other students you will be working with from advanced rune studies, all right?"

Hermione nodded and saw Draco do the same. Her heart was beating wildly fast she was so excited. The rest of the lesson was a breeze for her and it didn't even put a damper on her spirits when Malfoy ranted under his breath for the better part of the rest of the period.

When the bell rang she threw her stuff into her bag and leapt up. "Watch it Granger, someone's going to lose an eye. It's really not that great that you won as well, you know." He mumbled and Hermione shoved her chair in with a loud bang that made him jump.

"For once, Malfoy, just once, resign to the fact that there is nothing you can do about your current situation and shove it!" She exclaimed exasperatingly.

"There _is_ something I can do, Granger, and I assure you it will be done as soon as I get a pen and paper in hand-"

Draco choked on his next words and they turned into a garbled mess at the end of his tongue. Hermione saw his guard fall for just a second as his composure slipped but before she could even take it in he was back. "You will see exactly what I can do without my father." He took a menacing step forward, his fist clenching at his side so tightly Hermione could see the bones of his knuckles through his skin.

"Prove it, honestly you're about as scary as a Hephalump on ice skates Malfoy and you and I both know if you laid a hand on me-" But she was interrupted.

"Come on now, put your differences aside, you're partners now." Said Cameron kindly but seriously. "Now, follow me, we have a lot to cover in such a short time. We need to collect the Ravenclaw on the way to the library so put on your walking feet and get moving!" _So this was Cameron out of Arithmancy_, Hermione thought with a smile. _Odd_.

They began walking and Cameron insisted on making light conversation. "Your other partner, Samuel Truitt, is an A student as well. He's in his seventh year but he's not got any special appointments…" She said quickly as she sped their pace the slightest bit. "It was a real kicker when he wrote me telling me he'd missed the Head Boy position… never heard such a sad boy." Draco sighed loudly and Hermione resisted the urge to elbow him in the side.

"How do you know him?" Hermione asked and Cameron smiled.

"I used to teach at a pre-school for magically oriented children. He was the best student I ever encountered and we've kept in touch over the years." She spoke fondly of him and Hermione deducted that he must have been a good kid. "He's partly the reason I got this job, I suppose. They asked for any recommendations I had in mind and… well, he was so dear to me and his father I'm sure would say so many good things that I had to give it a go." She blushed and Hermione smiled, it was a smile only two girls could understand.

"So, Draco, to what do _you_ owe _your_ excellent grades. I know that I can attribute Miss Granger's to her great aspirations to reach her full potential, but you… I haven't quite figured you out yet." She said it as a half-question, half-statement and Hermione could tell Draco was all but ready to share his story.

"There's nothing to figure out really." He said calmly and Hermione glanced at him, his head was down watching his feet as they walked. "My father taught me to be the best and I've tried and that's it. Story over." He finished with a nod to himself and Cameron gave a short laugh.

"There has to be something in it for you." Cameron said seriously. "We're out of class, Draco, I am not your teacher at the moment. I am your employer." Cameron said proudly.

"What could there be in it for me? I go to class everyday, see the same people, do the same things, learn the same things, and want the same things. It's nothing new, a story that's been told a million times before." He said and Hermione sensed a tone of bitterness underlying his apathetic exterior.

"If that were the truth you wouldn't have told Crabbe and Goyle to bugger off." Hermione began under her breath and Draco looked towards her so fast she was shocked he didn't get whiplash. "I heard about it from Harry. His friend was in your charms class when it happened, no one else knows." She assured him haltingly.

"You had all better hope so- where _is_ this Ravenclaw dorm?" Draco asked as he looked around, looking at everything through suspicious gray eyes. They had been walking for over ten minutes and she could tell he was getting nervous and she found that she couldn't blame him at all.

"We're here actually." Cameron said and she gave three taps of her wand on a suit of armor. Hermione gasped as she saw the helmet's jaw drop to the floor and widen enough for a person to fit through. "Don't think this is an open dorm, kids." She said with a smile. "It's location changes every other day and the number of taps is never the same twice, I'll guarantee." Draco scoffed and Hermione agreed with him Why would they want to get into the Ravenclaw dorm with Gryffindors and Slytherins were the ones at war?

"Hold on Professor." Called a voice from the inside. Hermione marveled at the echoing sound his voice made. It was as if he was inside the suit of armor. "Here I am." There was a loud crash as a very tall and lanky boy tripped through the opening and knocked Hermione over. "So sorry. Here let me lend you a hand there." He said stupidly as a blush of embarrassment spread across his face.

"No, don't bother." Hermione said testily. "I can do it!" She snapped and he backed away.

"Yes, she's always this rude and no, there is no way to get away from her once she's targeted you for hell." Draco muttered and Hermione glared.

"That is enough Mr. Malfoy." Cameron said. "Hermione is not rude at all, Samuel, it is Draco that needs to be coached in manners." She finished and Samuel nodded shyly.

"Right." He said uncomfortably. "Where're we headed then?" He asked and Cameron smiled softly, her glasses sliding to the end of her nose.

"The library. I'm going to introduce you all to the documents that will be your job for however long you wish to keep it." Cameron stated and she stepped off in the opposite direction they had come.

Upon entering the library Hermione could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand straight up. She could feel strong magic very near and she almost immediately found the source. There was a blue force-field around an archway in the far corner. What was beyond the door was invisible due to a charm and Hermione felt her palms turn moist. This opportunity was amazing and she was ready to take full advantage of it as soon as they entered.

"Ah, Madame Pince. We have the students." Cameron said and the Librarian looked over each of them with great scrutiny and suspicion.

She walked over to the force field and pulled her wand out. But before she canceled the charm she looked back to the three of them. "Be damn careful with these documents or it'll be _your_ heads on my wall." She said, her eyes directing their attention to a few rare animal heads on a plaque nailed to the wall.

"Now, now, Marie. They are just students. I am sure they will be very careful with the documents, teacher's honor." Madame Pince frowned further and muttered a spell under her breath.

"Here, give these to the bunch of hooligans." The librarian said while thrusting three small folded sheets of paper into Cameron's hands. "If they lose it, they won't be receiving a copy and I'll charge them out of their pay for the paper and the time it will take to generate and set in place a new list of passwords."

"Yes, Marie. But, try to keep in mind as well that they are doing both of us a bit of a favor. Neither of us have the time nor energy to put fully into this project we have stumbled upon." Cameron seemed a bit perturbed at how Madame Pince was acting and Hermione could not agree more. They were doing a job that would consume most of their free time after school, on weekends, and over holidays.

"Right. Well, as soon as they grow up enough to be considered responsible for the project I suppose I will." Madame Pince replied shortly. "Now, the password for this week is Consortia. Look up the name in Mr. Binns' curriculum book and you will find a plethora of information concerning Consortia and her importance to our world. Every password on our list is related to Consortia so it would do you some good to learn a bit more about her."

They all nodded in agreement and Madame Pince looked mildly pleased. "Consortia." She said and the blue force field dissipated in a rush of glowing tendrils sent in all directions. "Follow me." They all watched as Madame Pince stepped inside the pointed archway and followed, after Cameron of course.

Looking around, Hermione marveled at the aged surroundings. Everything was covered in a thick, acrid layer of dust that made it hard to breathe properly and she sneezed. A large table was placed in the center of the small room and all over the table were several stacks of files and papers at least one foot high. On the floor though, there was even more and Hermione learned quickly that unless she wanted a nasty look from Madame Pince she would watch her feet as she tried to make her way through the mazes of stacks and loose sheaves of parchment scattered across the floor.

"This is your office." Madame Pince informed the three of them. "If you don't like its current condition do whatever you like to make it up to your standards. You may dust the documents and you may clean things up and organize it but not under any circumstances will these documents _ever_ leave this room. Is this understood?" She looked each one of them in the eyes with only the greatest scrutiny and they all nodded without hesitation. Madame Pince was slightly creepy at the moment…

"All right," Cameron interrupted. "Let's get to how things are organized currently." She said.

"It looks like a free for all of documents that were thrown together in a moment of great rush and carelessness." Draco commented dryly as he looked around, an expression of disgust on his face.

"Right you are Mr. Malfoy. There is no organization at all. I can only tell you that documents on the table are more current than the ones scattered about the floor and are obviously more important." Cameron stated with clear confidence. "I suggest you three schedule your first day of work to be an organizing and cleaning day. It will have to be a weekend and you will get paid the full wage of a weekend but I warn you, it will take time and patience."

"When are we allowed to start working?" Hermione asked and Cameron wagged her finger at Hermione.

"That is the greatest thing about this job you've been given, Miss Granger. You make your own hours and you can start as soon as today and work as often as you like. However, you may not skip any other classes besides arithmancy. But in order to do that you must ask my permission and have me sign a sheet of paper saying where you will be." Cameron clapped her hands together and looked around the room, her eyes sparkling with excitement for them all.

"Come on, Marie. We should leave them to get acquainted with one another." Cameron said and Madame Pince reluctantly followed Cameron out of the room.

Hermione looked around one more time before taking a few steps forward and pulling a chair out. She sat silently at the table and folded her hands in front of her. After another minute she reached her hand out slowly and grabbed a piece of parchment from the nearest pile.

"These are really complicated…" Hermione informed the others. "Some of these equations I have never seen before. We're going to need a more advanced book for charms. I'll talk to Professor Flitwick and see if he has any books that he would recommend for this." Hermione offered.

"That'd be great." Samuel said. "And I doubt it would hurt if we got a book of Latin as well, my Latin isn't as up to date as it was fresh out of my youth academy." He said and Draco scoffed.

"I know all the Latin we need-"

"You're susceptible to human error whereas a book is not-" But Hermione was interrupted once again by Draco.

"I know all the Latin we need." Hermione met his eyes and they were fixed on hers with a cold glare that made him look oddly scary. "I know more Latin than any book you will ever find does and it may help that I know three different dialects as well."

"I'd be much more comfortable getting a book. Who's to say that we will all be in here at the same time?" Hermione asked.

"If I know you even half as well as I think I do and you know me half as well as you think you do than you can answer that question all on your own. As for Samuel, I cannot speak for him." Hermione opened her mouth to argue but Draco held up his hand. "Fine! Get the damn book. I don't give a shit but if the books wrong, I'm burning it so don't borrow anything from anyone whose too attached." He warned seriously and Hermione shrugged.

Sometimes it's just easier to stop when no one's yelling and Hermione had the feeling that that was the direction in which this conversation was heading.

Samuel shifted his weight from foot to foot uncomfortably and Hermione turned to him. "Is something wrong?" She asked and he shook his head quickly.

"No, it's just very obvious you all are very passionate about what you're doing and I feel like I won't be contributing enough. I don't plan on spending every second of my spare time in here and from the way you two argue you both were, you know?" He asked and Hermione nodded.

"Well… What's the best day for you all to have our little organization day?" She asked and Draco coughed.

"I was thinking Saturday." He offered and Hermione shook her head.

"That is the only day I get to see my friends. They're always so busy. I think Friday after school gets over would be fine." Draco nodded and they both turned their attention to Samuel who was shaking his head.

"Sunday would be best for me… Unless you two want to give it a go by yourselves." He said softly.

"Why can't you do it on Friday?" Hermione asked and Draco nodded in agreement.

"I have a wizard's chess club meeting right after last class and they subtract points for absences. I could lose as much as one game's worth of points depending on how important the meeting was and at this point I'm neck and neck with some slimy Slytherin-no offense- and I can't afford the lost points." Samuel replied and Hermione nodded.

"I can't do it on Sunday." Draco said. "I always do my homework on Sunday and this week I have more than usual."

"Can no one change their schedule?" Hermione asked and from the expression on Draco and Samuel's faces, she guessed not. "Fine, Dra- Malfoy and I will do it together but you owe us." From the look on Draco's face she knew he must have noticed her near slip of the tongue.

"Right then, what do you want?" Samuel asked and he pulled his wallet out of his pocket.

"Not money you git! Work. You forfeit work for your club, you pay us in work. How about we organize all the documents and leave a section of it for you to do yourself." She suggested. "That way you can catch up, do it on your own time and you won't get behind, nor will either of you have to alter your schedules." She gave a look to each of them and they nodded.

"Friday." Draco repeated.

"Well, I have much to do, I should probably get going then." Samuel said, excusing himself and Hermione nodded.

"Yes, Madame Pince is probably wearing herself out wondering why we've been in here so long. Remember Malfoy, Friday right after school." Hermione preached and Draco gave her a mock salute.

"Right, Granger, Friday. I look forward to it with the utmost dread and trepidation as I am sure you feel the same." Draco commented flamboyantly while smirking. "But alas, since Cameron decided she wanted to be partial to her fellow Gryffindors I'll have to adjust to the unfairness."

"Draco," She said slowly after Samuel had left. "She was a Hufflepuff." And with that she turned and left the room, a smile on her face and a song on her mind. _Don't hate me 'cuz I'm right, hate me 'cuz I'm beautiful…_

"Hey Ron, can you finish this part for me? I have to talk to professor Flitwick about something." Ron nodded dipped his quill in ink. "When Harry gets back, tell him that the answer to number twelve is _alohomora_, he's always had trouble with that one." Ron rolled his eyes but said nothing.

Hermione stood and walked to the desk at the front of the classroom where Flitwick sat upon his mountain of books. "Miss Granger?" He asked and he set his quill down.

"I was wondering if you had any advanced charms books? I have an arithmancy project and our up to date charms books aren't exactly adequate for the task at hand…" She said quietly and he nodded.

"Say no more. I happen to have some right here. Help me up dear." He said and Hermione took his arm, helping him to the floor where he stood at least two feet shorter than her. "Now, I need your word that you won't try to learn any of these charms without first going through the proper procedures. You remember now don't you? First you need to ask, is this a spell I can use for good? Next you need to-"

"Ask yourself if it is dangerous, if so, ask an adult to help you. Three, always practice with a partner in case something goes terribly wrong and you're turned into some kind of worm. Yes professor, I took all the notes and know all of the procedures." Flitwick smiled.

"I should have guessed. Take as many volumes as you need and if you need any help at all, I am quite good at charms. Is there anything else?" He asked and Hermione thought as she stacked three rather large charms books into her arms.

"Actually, professor, do you happen to have any Latin books?" She asked and He shook his head.

"No, I'm afraid that is not my area of expertise." He said remorsefully. "I would suggest asking either Minerva or Severus, they both speak it fluently." Hermione nodded, said thank you, and walked back to Ron and hers table.

"More books? Woman, are you mad. You already have ten in your bag, it's going to be damn near impossible for you to carry." Ron said but Hermione fit each one in one by one. "You put a charm on it didn't you? I should have guessed."

"I hate it when you say that. _I should have guessed._ It's like you're saying that I'm predictable." Hermione said with a frown as she met his eyes. "I hate it." Ron nodded though she knew he didn't quite get it.

"It'd be like me going, Ron, here's my homework since I know you didn't do it." Ron smiled and Hermione got the hint. "I shouldn't have to do it, I do it because I actually care about your grades and-"

"Missed something did I?" Asked a playful voice behind them and Hermione turned to see Harry.

"Hermione was just telling me how spontaneous and unpredictable she is. How she's a woman on the edge, she's got nothing to lose…" Harry looked at Hermione then at Ron and they both burst out laughing.

"Enough over there, keep working lest I have to separate you three." Hermione packed up her things and threw her bag over her shoulder.

"It's fine, Professor. I was just moving." She walked to an empty table in the back and pulled out her book and a piece of parchment. Harry and Ron looked at her and she started working. Next thing she knew the two chairs next to her were being pulled out and Ron and Harry sat down.

"Sorry, but you're not fooling anyone when you say you're anything other than structured and organized. Face it, if there's a test coming up, everyone knows where you are. If there isn't a test, we all know where you are. If there is nothing at all to do and it's snowing outside, we all know where you are." Harry clapped her on the back. "There's nothing wrong with being predictable, at least you get everything done."

Hermione nodded and sighed. "If I didn't feel like I had to, I wouldn't." She said and Harry shook his head yes.

"And we all know it. But since you do feel it, we can only love you more for it. A joke here and there is no big deal right? It's not like we make fun of you every time you turn around…" Ron silently agreed.

"Now, this new charms obsession…" Harry said and Hermione and Ron laughed.

"It's not an obsession, Harry. I got that arithmancy job." Harry looked insulted, as if she hadn't tried to tell him. "I haven't spent enough time in the same room as you to tell you." Harry nodded, a grin spreading across his face.

"So Malfoy didn't get it? Yes! Score one for the muggle borns." He said quietly and she smiled lightly.

"No, we both did. Professor Cameron looked over some of my other work from DADA and decided the F was undeserved considering it was obviously not my handiwork." Hermione said proudly.

"Was Malfoy pissed?" He asked and Hermione nodded vigorously.

"Yes, he almost started a fight during class. He was turning apple red and everything." Hermione said. "Honestly, it serves him right for doing what he did to my paper. I suppose I should be a bit more civil towards him though." She conceded and Harry and Ron's jaws dropped.

"Why on earth would you want to do that?" Ron asked and Hermione motioned for him to be quiet, Flitwick's eyes were roaming the room for the source of the outburst. "Why?" Ron repeated once Flitwick went back to grading his papers.

"Because, I have to work with him and if every time we see each other we raise our wands we're not going to get any work done at all." Hermione replied in a whisper. "And besides, wouldn't want him to find some sick way to retaliate since we all know he's so good at it."

From the significant look he gave her, Hermione could tell that Harry understood but Ron was still perplexed as to why she would want to even treat Malfoy like a human. "Why?" Hermione rolled her eyes and went back to work.

"I can't go to Hagrid's hut with you guys on Friday." Hermione informed them after the bell rang and they were packing their stuff away,

"Why not? I told Hagrid we would all be there, you know we go every Friday." Harry said and Hermione saw the slightly wounded look in his eyes.

"I have to work on Friday, we're having an organization party minus the fun and games." She said doggedly. "It'll be only Malfoy and me because our other partner has to go to chess club and he doesn't want to lose his position to a Slytherin, which I can understand."

"Let Malfoy have a got at it on his own… he's more of the type to do something on his own. Never seemed like much of a team player." Ron suggested and Hermione shook her head.

"That's not a solution I would even consider. If I left it up to Malfoy it wouldn't get done-"

"So you think. You think that no matter what if your're not breathing down someone's neck nothing's going to get done and now Hagrid's going to be disappointed. Is Malfoy worth it, honestly/" Harry asked and Hermione frowned.

"You know it's not about Malfoy at all Harry. Don't be difficult." She said sternly and he nodded reluctantly. "I have to do my part in this thing because if I don't… well, you both know how I am. Now let's go, Transfiguration's next and form what I heard from Amber, it's going to be loads of fun."

And so it was. They spent the whole period trying to turn their quills into kitchen utensils. As usual, Neville failed to say the incantation properly and was headed up to the hospital wing fifteen minutes into class, a spoon melded onto his nose. That one had them all laughing for quite a while.

Near the end of class the Hufflepuffs weren't overly pleased when one of Seamus' stray spells hit one of their peers, causing chaos as the Hufflepuff ran around blindly cursing anything and everything as random as he could. Even McGonagall cracked a smile when this happened and Hermione was happy to say that she was very pleased to see that McGonagall had teeth after all and the rumors were not true.

The rest of the week went well until Thursday, which was when Hermione began to dread Friday. Draco was more malicious than ever towards her and she was growing more and more confident in the assumption that Malfoy was quite capable of making her fear for her life. _And_ there was always the fact that they would be alone together in a small room for god only knows how long.

Despite Draco's ever serious protests Hermione did ask McGonagall for a book on Latin _and_ to Harry's and Ron's surprise she was brave enough to ask Snape as well. Of course he refused, saying he was much too fond of his fifty year old, antique, tattered, frayed, and torn book to let just anyone who asked borrow it. Hermione had expected no less so in advanced she had gotten permission from McGonagall to check out a Latin book from the reference section of the library. It was rather large and bulky but it wasn't likely that she would carry it around on her back everyday so it made little difference.

Due to Hermione's bad luck, Friday fell on her least favorite schedule. She had DADA, History of magic and double potions at the end of the day. That allowed for her to leave school pissed and carry it into her workspace. Perfect.

Hermione was right in her assumption that Friday was going to be a bad day. Fist off, she got up late and had to skip breakfast, putting her in a fowl mood even before she stepped into the DADA classroom. Then, Dark had had the pluck to accuse her of using her friendship with her arithmancy teacher to get her way, which started a class-long argument that she knew wasn't over even when she left the classroom. And the final straw was predictably Potions. Snape broke up the 'Gryffindor Dream Team' once again and forced her to work with Millicent Bullstrode, a not very petite fifth year that had the intelligence of a worm but the muscles of a champion weight lifter.

Millicent, through the course of the period, succeeded in dumping Hermione's cauldron all down her front, knocking her out of her seat, elbowing her in the face while just 'raising her hand,' and calling her a string of filthy names that would make a prostitute blush. And just when Hermione had decided she had had enough, the bell rang and Millicent spilled all of her slug bile out all over the floor telling Snape that Hermione had knocked it out of her hand.

So the first fifteen minutes after class, Hermione spent on her knees scrubbing the floor until it was cleaned to Snape's satisfaction. "The next time you decided to be blatantly violent towards your rival house you will find yourself with a detention slip signed by me and I doubt you want to spend an hour with me _inside_ of class let alone _outside_ of it. Do we understand one another, Miss Granger?"

"Yes, professor." Hermione said, her voice dripping with open anger and hostility towards the potions master. "May I go now?" She asked and Snape gave a short laugh.

"Yes, you've taken up enough of my time, Granger. Just remember what I said." He motioned towards the door and Hermione stormed out of his classroom, a scowl on her face, which was twisted with rage.

"Ridiculous!" Hermione shouted as she dropped the charms books she had obtained onto the large, old, wooden desk in the center of the room.

"You're late, Granger." Malfoy said and Hermione scoffed. "I decided not to start without you. I hope you didn't expect otherwise." He added almost thoughtfully.

"Oh no, of course not. Why would I expect you to work without someone there to watch you and praise you for your success?" Hermione asked bitterly and he glared. She looked around the dank, poorly lit room and pulled out her wand. "This will not do at all. There's barely enough light to see anything, let alone to read and work. _Lumos!_" As soon as the word left her mouth the end of her wand lit and she pointed it at each and every candle, which lit and glowed brightly even after the light at the tip of her wand had been extinguished. "That's more like it. Now, where to start?"

"I brought some folders to use for organization since I figured you had the book thing covered." Draco offered as he placed his book bag on the table and opened it. Hermione watched as he pulled out folder after folder until the stack was a foot high.

"Only fifty?" She asked after she had finished counting and Hermione placed her hands on her hips. "We're going to need a lot more than fifty."

"Well, they're bewitched to hold up to three hundred documents each. I assumed it would be enough considering that fifty times three hundred is… well, fifteen thousand documents and I doubt this room could hold more than ten thousand, but that's me." He said arrogantly pleased with himself.

"Right then. It'll do." Hermione figured that was enough of an apology considering she was pretty much sure he had never given an apology to anyone in his life. He probably didn't even know what a real one sounded like anyway. "How should we organize things? I was thinking by category or by date."

"Well, if you actually look at the documents- go on, pick one up- you see that they are labeled in the top right hand corner. Take these two for instance. One says reverse death and this one here says growing. Therefore we should label a folder as reverse death and one as growing, am I making any sense at all here to anyone but myself?" He asked and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Get over your own greatness." She said and he shrugged.

"Would it kill you to admit I'm right every once in a while. I assure you it would do wonders for my attitude towards you…" He said but his face betrayed realization. "I stand corrected, except for the whole mudblood thing of course. That I am afraid cannot be forgotten when I make your life hell." Draco commented dryly.

"Of course, sir Draco." Hermione conceded mockingly.

"What did you say?" He asked and Hermione smiled innocently.

"Nothing, sir Draco."

"Don't call me that you little-"

"All right, but honestly sir Draco we must get to work." She walked over to the corner humming and began to organize things. And for the rest of their time in the room she called him nothing but Sir Draco and she had never seen him more pissed.

"Don't you patronize me." He would say and Hermione would nod as if she understood.

"_I_ wouldn't do _that_ sir Draco." And he start ranting all over again.

After four hours of bickering and fighting the room was looking much cleaner and now had a visible floor. When their project began nearing completion, Hermione took it upon herself to assign sections to each of them. Draco ended up with organizing the folders he had brought and cleaning the floor, a daunting task, while Hermione dusted candle holders, washed the walls, and gave the many portraits around the room a good scrubbing.

"There, we're done now, right?" He asked hopefully, taking a look around the room, a smile of satisfaction on his face. Hermione shook her head and he sighed while crossing his arms over his chest. "What the hell could possibly be left to do?" He asked in his half exasperated, half-agitated tone. "The walls are spotless, the floors are practically so shiny that I can see my reflection, and have you even seen what we've done with the documents. I mean, Woman! What more could you possible want?"

"I'd first like you to look to your right and notice the large dead animal on the floor and then I would like you to look on the table and see how all of the blood stains and knife grooves accent the color of the wood." She said and Draco rolled his eyes.

"There are worse things than dead animals and blood stains." Draco said caustically.

"Yes, well, dead animals tend to become an issue for me when they move and slowly prowl in the direction of a very bossy and very mean and bitter Slytherin!" She said and she watched as she noted the seriousness in her tone and the look of fear in her eyes.

Draco slowly turned to see a small creature glide towards him. It was definitely not a boggart, Hermione concluded as there was no place to hide and it didn't look like anything she had ever seen before. It's eyes were a deep shade of red and it almost looked like it had no feet at all, it just glided over the floor like a hovercraft.

"Oh my!" Hermione shouted and Draco nearly jumped out of his skin. "That's a Kelltor!" She said and she ran forward, her arms spread wide. "Hello little fellow." She said and pulled out her wand as she knelt. "_Lumos!_" She said and a thread of light burst forth from her wand. The darkness dissipated and Hermione cried out in glee.

"Draco, it's a real kelltor, I've only ever read about them and they're _really _rare!" She exclaimed and he nodded uninterestedly. "Hey little fella, what're you doing in Hogwarts?" She asked it and the small animal sneezed, spraying nasal fluid all over Hermione's face. This made Draco laugh, which made Hermione mad. "What do you think is so funny? At least I don't have a dirt spot on my nose the size of a golf ball- Oh, I'm sorry." She said kindly as the animal yipped in fear. "I'm sorry, aunty Hermione won't yell at Sir Draco any more." She held it close to her and Draco rolled his eyes.

"Honestly, you women and your damned animals." Draco said seriously. "You see a stray on the street and think it is the cutest thing _ever."_ Hermione smiled as she held the small creature tightly in her arms.

Hermione looked at the thing in her arms and noted its odd color as well as its seemingly unusual appearance. It had the facial and skull structure of a very small dog but its hair hung off of it like a coat that was so low to the ground she could barely see any paws at all. Its coat was actually a common shade of auburn with light green scattered spots and at the end of its tail was a very white tip; it glowed like unicorn hair. Hermione looked into its dark eyes and realized just how much she missed Crookshanks.

"But it is… It's so _cute_! Yes you!" She in said a high pitched and squeaky voice while patting its nose. The creature rebuked by snipping at her fingers and she scoffed. "You've poisoned the thing against me."

"Didn't take much." Draco retorted and the kelltor, as if just realizing he was there, turned its bright, lamp-like eyes towards him and he glared. It pawed and struggled its way out of Hermione's arms and began walking towards him. "Oh no you don't." He said severely while brandishing his fist. "Don't you come any closer, stay, stay! No get away!" But before he could throw even a punch at the dog-like creature it was in Draco's arm licking his face.

"Well isn't this precious? Isn't it just so lucky that I happen to have my camera, Draco?" Hermione asked while walking towards her bag.

"Don't you do it, Her- Hermione." He stuttered and Hermione nodded.

"Just one picture, I'll leave you out of it, I just want one of the kelltor. My mum's never seen the likes of it before, that's for sure." She pulled out her camera and snapped a quick picture.

"Now get this hairy beast off of me." He pleaded.

"Draco," Hermione began with a sigh. "Just tell it what to do. They are very good at taking commands."

"We'll see when _you're _the one with the Celtic beastie thing around your neck." He said, his voice raising in pitch as the kelltor began sniffing and licking his face and moved to his neck. "Don't! That tickles!" He shouted, letting out a hearty laugh and Hermione picked up her camera again. This was one of those rare opportunities where risking your life to take a picture was necessary.

A flash engulfed the room and when Hermione lowered her camera Draco's smile had faded and his face flushed. "You _did not_ just take a photo…" Draco demanded and Hermione shrugged. "Give me the goddamn camera, you obviously cannot handle simple instructions." He added. "Give me the camera." He took a step towards her and she shoved the camera into her bag. "Damn it Granger, just give me the camera." The kelltor looked uneasy and Hermione was beginning to accept the seriousness of the situation.

"I just took one o-of the kelltor… Draco, back off!" She yelled.

"Give me the fucking camera." He said. The kelltor jumped off his shoulder to the floor and Hermione grabbed it.

"Come on, let's go." She grabbed her bag and ran out of the room, Draco's ranting following her all the way to the stairs.

Hermione entered Gryffindor tower and went to sit by the fire to inspect her new find. It seemed docile enough to stay with her and there was no rule that she could had a kelltor as a pet.

"I found you, so I guess that makes you mine. What kind of names do kelltors have?" She asked the small animal who cocked its head and gave a small, weak, and slightly saddening bark. "You look like a baby… do you like the name baby?" she asked it and the kelltor growled. "What about Aurum? I like that but maybe for short I could call you… Auru?" Hermione had a liking for odd names and Auru definitely fulfilled her desire for something original. Aurum meant gold in Latin and though he wasn't exactly gold she looked like she'd sure be worth a lot of it.

"Auru? You like that?" The kelltor barked and Hermione nodded. "I like it too. Now, I want you to meet some people." She soothed and Hermione spent the whole rest of the evening introducing her new pet to all of her friends.

As Hermione snuggled next to Auru later that night she resolved that she would have her friend Collin develop her pictures that she had taken in special wizard picture solution so that it would move. Draco may not have been pleased with the pictures but when Hermione thought of them it brought a smile to her lips.

Early Saturday morning Hermione woke to the sounds of loud, harsh, and altogether annoying screaming from the grounds. She rose and closed her window but not before she took a quick glance to see whom was doing the killing but there was no one on the grounds. It was then that she realized the yelling was coming from the corridor outside the Gryffindor dorms. She pulled her morning robe on and walked up the stairs into the Gryffindor commons. Not surprisingly there was no one up at this hour but as she neared the portrait hole, the yelling only grew louder.

Hermione threw open the portrait hole door and stepped into the hallway but the yelling did not stop.

"Who's out there?" She questioned quietly. It was so dark that she could not see within a foot of her own face. The yelling continued. Walking further down the hall she recognized the voices of two of her closest friends.

"-I was in the common room, Harry! I know that you were leaving, I just want to know where you were going is all!" Ginny shouted. "If it is nearly as innocent as you're insinuating it is then I don't understand why you just won't tell me." Hermione moved forward to get a closer look at her friends who were off in the shadows somewhere near by.

"Ginny, it's not important where I was going. You wouldn't understand even if I did tell you." Said Harry's voice, which seemed low and crushed. The tones that they were using shocked Hermione. She could tell it was more the friendly anger and concern. Both of them _cared_ about one another as was revealed from the way they spoke.

"I just want to know that we're at that point that you can tell me these things. Even if they don't all make sense. I'm not asking you to be flawless or perfect, I'm asking you to be Harry Potter, the honest Harry I met and the Harry I think I'm in love with." Hermione almost coughed out loud but covered her mouth in time.

There was silence and Hermione was just about to turn around when she heard Harry speak. "I love you too." Hermione bit her lip. She had no idea why this came as such a surprise but that Harry and Ginny were… together, all she knew was that it did.

She watched Harry step forward and take Ginny into his arms. It was like watching a movie except for the shock that it was real, that Harry was real and Ginny was real. Turning, Hermione saw Auru. she had followed her all the way out into the hallway and she had been so quiet.

"Oh, you're such a good girl." She mouthed and took her into her arms. "Let's go to the library. I'm not going to sleep anymore and I might as well get started." She said and Auru yipped in agreement. "And there is no rule about you accompanying me as long as you are potty trained and know the difference between an importantly ancient document and a chew toy."

After dressing, Hermione went down to the great hall for a quick and early breakfast, which she enjoyed in complete solitude. After eating three slices of toast, a glass of pumpkin juice, and three pieces of bacon, Hermione headed up to the library, her very full animal friend right behind her.

Entering the room, the first thing that Hermione noticed was a very calm and peaceful looking Draco. As she neared she realized that he must have been sleeping for the expression on his face was one of pure innocence, something not even she had mastered.

Walking further into the room she saw him lift his head groggily and look at her. "Ah, _you're_ here." He said disappointedly, a look of disgust on his face. "And I see you've brought the beast as well, at least something good may come of your little visit." His tired voice echoed through the cold, empty room and for the first time, Hermione realized how cold it truly was.

"You like Auru then?" Hermione asked and Draco yawned, rubbing his eyes.

"Who's this Auru?" He stood and stretched and Hermione watched in avid jealousy as her new pet went scrambling towards Draco.

"That's what I named her." Hermione replied in her know it all tone of voice that everyone in Hogwarts knew a little too well for anyone's liking.

"Not to ruin your pleasant dreams of kelltor puppies and all those feminine things that you women think of, but Auru here's a boy." He said arrogantly and Hermione guffawed.

"And how could you possibly know that?" Hermione asked while crossing her arms over her chest indignantly.

"Well, if you've read up on kelltors then you would know that their color depends on gender. The ordinary colors like brown and black and golden yellow are male colors and the odd ones like blue green and purple are female colors." He retorted calmly. "As you see, Auru here is auburn and white with a little bit of green spray paint on his back end." Draco said with a smirk.

"I don't see why I should believe a word you say. You're a liar and you're a Slytherin. Each alone may be acceptable qualities but when grouped together the unfortunate person who inherits them is hopeless." Hermione said.

"Look for yourself." Draco said simply. The kelltor scratched at his leg sadly and Draco lifted him up onto the table. "There you are, one of the decipherers, eh?" He scratched the animal's head and its reaction was cuter than anything Hermione had seen yet. It stuck its tongue out playfully and kicked out its leg in pleasure.

"So, how long have you been here?" Hermione asked suddenly as she took a seat at the opposite end of the table.

"Don't ask, don't tell. It's a healthy motto to base your life upon, Granger, and the sooner you learn to abide by it, the safer you will be." Draco said sadly.

"Right." And they did not speak another word to one another unless it was to say pass the ink-bottle or trace paper.

"I suppose he'll be leaving with you?" Hermione asked as she organized and put away her translation for lunch.

"No, the Slytherins will tear Auru apart." Draco shooed the small animal towards Hermione and she left Draco in the room alone to brood.

Hermione passed the next few months by doing her best in school, working hard when she was in arithmancy, and spending all of her free time in the library. Ron was jealous of where all her time was directed and she could tell he was becoming suspicious of her motives, which was silly… Wasn't it?

Not to say she enjoyed Draco's company, more like she found it slightly tolerable because it was low maintenance. She had also come to notice that everything that went on in the room, every discovery made, made Draco a little more kind towards her and to a degree she liked that.

Halloween had come and gone and everyone had been very disappointed when the teachers announced that there was no ball. But when word spread that there was to be a Yule ball similar to the one held in fourth year, Hogwarts went into a frenzy of hormones and a viciousness that Hermione had never before witnessed.

Girls were asking boys and boys were asking girls and love was everywhere. By now, Ron had discovered Harry's and Ginny's relationship. Even though Ron loved his sister and was very loyal to Harry, for some reason unknown to Hermione he was unwilling to accept it.

During those long days of conflict Hermione liked to spend her time in a much more controlled environment with a certain sleazy Slytherin…


	14. A Mutual Acceptance of Terms

Chapter 14: A Mutual Acceptance of Terms

Draco noticed a slow change in everything in his world since he had denounced his heirloom. He had not asked for the burden that was the Malfoy name nor did he believe that he had any reason to stay loyal to it. To be a Malfoy meant to be doomed and with this realization came the eye-opening revelation that not everything stood as it formerly had.

Take the mudblood for example. She seemed normal enough on the outside but in her veins ran the mixed blood of a wizard and a muggle. What was in this blood that made it any different from his own? A simple idea, a simple belief, a simple cycle of discrimination.

If he had met her on the street somewhere far from England, Draco had no doubt that he would have found Granger attractive for both her appearance and her intellect.

Upon further inspection of his entire life Draco concluded that the hole after hole he found meant so much more than the idea on the whole. Some things just did not match up and for that reason he adopted a new philosophy. Not that he would change his personality. Though others may not have been, Draco was quite fond of his personality. It was harsh, it was dark, but it was real and it was who he had become after sixteen years of Draco in the making.

After the weeks and weeks he had spent in the room Draco had come to a startling conclusion about the works of Xander. They had been tampered with. After some advanced dating spells he had discovered that the documents had been opened, changed, and resealed in the recent past, possibly within fifty years. Whatever the things Xander had been working on, someone had not wanted them read properly, maybe not even read at all.

"Can you pass me the Latin dictionary?" Asked his constant companion and Draco shook his head with a smirk.

"No, what's the word?" He asked just as he always did. She had insisted upon having the dictionary in the room but that didn't mean he had to let her use it when he was there.

"Come on… I know the rough translation of the word but I want to make sure. It doesn't make any sense." The mudblood looked up from her work, a demanding expression on her face.

"Okay, pass it here." He said. "I'm here for a reason, you know. I know more Latin than that stupid book." He said bitterly. "Don't you trust me?"

She guffawed and pushed her paper across the table towards him as she stood. "Trust is something that is mutual, Draco."

"Is it my fault my father told me to never turn your back on a Gryffindor?" He asked as he looked over the parchment.

"Is it my fault McGonagall said the same thing about Slytherins?" She asked and he looked up at her with an odd expression. "There, you see." She said, pointing at the parchment.

"How did you get this?" He asked seriously and she shrugged. "You've translated this incorrectly. You see, two in this sequence stands for s not d therefore it would turn out to be dead not seas. There." He changed it and Granger laughed.

"Always first to cast the stone." She said and Draco shook his head.

"Who said anything about stones? You made a simple miscalculation, it's not like I jumped you for it." He said severely as he handed it back to her.

"That is exactly what you would have done before." Granger offered half jokingly and Draco realized she was asking for reassurance on where they currently stood. She needed to be sure that this would not all change in a day. It couldn't, he realized. After being this way he knew there was no returning.

"When we're in here, we're colleagues, Granger." Draco said and this would have to be enough for her at this point.

"So if it is dead then it _still_ doesn't make sense." She said and Draco sighed.

"How so?" He asked and she offered it to him. "Read it." He said. Draco was tired of reading the endless code of numbers, his head hurt.

"Singularis conquiro alica ut servo vomica de certus nex absentia… single sought spell to fight the curse of sure death? Does it make sense to you?" She asked and Draco shrugged.

"All those arithmancists were very weird, who knows?" Draco asked and she sighed. "Read me more, maybe that's just a piece of the puzzle." He suggested and she nodded half-heartedly.

"Solus alica vis per vires satis pugno ut viridis addo de nex…" She read aloud slowly. "I don't know what half those words mean." She exclaimed. "I got only force and green and death." She said looking over the paper at him and Draco translated it slowly in his mind.

_The only force with strength enough to fight the green bringer of death…_Suddenly it struck him. "This fellow was trying to fight the curse of green death! What's the only killing spell you know described as green?" He asked Granger and she shrugged. "Avada kedavra!" He shouted and Granger's eyes went wide with horror.

"You don't think!" She asked and he shook his head.

"I know! It all makes sense." He jumped up and she handed him the paper before he could tear it from her grasp. He looked down at the paper. He started going through all of the files they had already translated and stacked them in front of him in an almost wild frenzy.

It was all one experiment. Every document they had were Xander's attempts at creating a counter spell for the avada kedavra curse. Looking through each piece of parchment, Draco could have smacked himself.

"Now it makes sense." He said with a sigh of relief and Granger walked over next to him.

"What makes sense?" She asked while looking over his shoulder as if she expected to see the same things he did.

"That the documents were tampered with." Draco said without thinking.

"Tampered with? How do you know that they were tampered with?" She asked and Draco motioned for her to be silent for a minute.

After sitting and settling Draco turned his attention to Granger. "I found odd smudges on words and whole lines of numbers didn't add up correctly or even close so I had the ink dated and they were four hundred years apart in age." He explained and she crossed her arms over her chest, her posture suggesting that she wanted a good explanation for his silence. "I thought that someone had corrected his works but in reality they were sabotaging it. Do you know what this means?" Draco asked and Granger shook her head slowly.

"No, but I bet it has to do with power." She commented dryly and Draco ignored her.

"It means that by completing the sequences ourselves we could find the counter spell for the killing curse. Aurors and wizards would be safe against Voldemort's favorite choice of weapon besides corruption and bribery that is." He said and Granger looked taken aback. "Now that we know, we just need to finish translating all of the documents, get them organized, recopy them without the words and sequences that were tampered with and then figure out what the hell it all means." He said elatedly.

"You think it will be that easy?" Granger asked apparently unconvinced.

"Why not?"

How wrong Draco was when he asked that question. Two weeks into December, Draco found himself exhausted, disappointed, and angry all at once. How could something seemingly so simple be so fucking complicated? Granger got the brunt of his frustrations though. He often found himself snapping at her for no apparent reason and though he did not feel exactly guilty, he did not feel all fuzzy on the inside. He knew she was just as dedicated to the project but when he reached one more dead end that didn't matter.

On the day they discovered the aim of Xander's works they had decided to keep the discovery quiet. They didn't even tell Samuel, not that they had had much of an opportunity as he was never there.

Draco stood suddenly and shook his hands out. Giving a loud yawn he woke Auru who in turn woke the Granger. Groaning loudly she lifted her head and looked up at him.

"What is it? Did you find something?" She asked and he shook his head.

"I'm heading to bed." He explained. "You should too." He suggested and she nodded.

Draco collected his things, placed them in his bag, and threw it over his shoulder. "See you tomorrow." He said and Granger nodded once again before laying her head back down. He patted Auru on the head as he passed and the small animal repositioned itself curling up next to the mudblood.

As Draco made his way through the deserted, dark, and eerie hallways towards the prefectorial dormitories he heard an odd noise to his left. Turning he heard something that sounded disturbingly a lot like… moaning? Veering off course a corridor, Draco followed the oddly strangled noise to a predictable source.

"Ah, Pansy." Draco said coolly. "At it again I see." He finished with a knowing smirk. There was rustling and a very flustered Crabbe and a shameless Pansy formed from the shadows. "Oh, Crabbe, nice choice in women. We had more in common than I imagined."

Pansy smirked. "If I'm still your type we could have a go." She said slowly and Draco resisted the urge to say something that could be interpreted as equally suggestive but a bit more violent.

"Tempting… but, no. I would much rather have a go with myself than waste my time and energy on your high maintenance." He replied and her grin never faltered.

"I still don't have a date for the dance." She was relentless! "I've been waiting for you to come around but you're much more stubborn than you let on."

"Well, it's quite obvious you've been around at least twice, which is plenty for the both of us, I've decided." Draco retorted caustically. "And besides that, I want something more than an arm decoration for the evening. The Slytherin common room has been lacking in intellectually stimulating conversation and I fear I may soon have to turn to the Hufflepuffs."

"I won't give up that easily…" Pansy said while taking Crabbe's hand in hers and leading him in the other direction. "Remember my offer; I'll be open until the night of the dance…" Her voice faded and Draco snorted. _I'm sure you're open more often than that…_

Draco's eyes began coming in and out of focus and he shook his head drowsily. He was so tired.

He walked to the wall trying to remember where he was and leaned against it. Slowly he slid down. He would sit here, just for a minute. Just until he figured out where he was and where he had been going… Draco's eyes closed and he drifted off, jolting awake only seconds later just to drift off once again.

He could feel the threat of sleep more acutely as black sweetness lurked near the edge of his vision. "Just for a minute." He convinced himself and he closed his eyes. _Just for a minute…_

"Mr. Malfoy, what may I ask are you doing in the hallway?" Asked a sharp voice and Draco was jolted awake from his deep dreamless sleep.

"Professor!" Draco exclaimed and he stood, grabbing his bag. "Sorry professor, I must have dozed, I don't remember stopping here, sir." He excused.

"Whether you remember or not makes no difference, the fact that you are here is enough, Mr. Malfoy." Severus Snape loomed over Draco like a cloud ready to burst.

"Yes sir." He said.

"We need to have a talk, Mr. Malfoy." He then said and Draco sighed. "My office now."

"I have work to do, it's Saturday-"

"I am well aware of what day of the week it is Mr. Malfoy, now do as I say!" Draco lifted his bag over his shoulder and followed Snape to his office in the dungeons, his head lowered, heart filled with foreboding.

Snape quickly unlocked the door to his private office and Draco entered hesitantly. Taking a quick glance around there were many odd and disturbing things he noticed. Not only were there many jars of odd things suspended in yellow fluid but there were also other, even weirder things hanging from his head of house's ceiling.

"Have a seat, Mr. Malfoy." The professor snapped and Draco did as he was told, taking the seat across Snape's desk. "Now, what is the matter with you?" He asked rather bluntly. "I received a letter from your mother telling me you have been… aloof." Snape said and Draco nodded.

"I haven't had much spare time, you see." He explained casually. "She expects a twelve inch essay every day of the week and, quite frankly, I don't know of one single student at this school who has that kind of extra time."

"I see. But that does not explain your change in attitude as well as a monumental change in your overall habits. Your grades are lacking as I see in most of your classes as of late. They are very high, but not the best. Quite an odd occurrence, one might say, yes Mr. Malfoy?" Snape searched his eyes and Draco tried not to meet his princely black stare.

"I have been preoccupied as I have already mentioned." Draco respectfully rebuked. "I assure you I have been giving no less of my attention to my schoolwork than I ever have and as you should know, courses get harder as we move further into the year." Draco added. "Transfiguration is a perfect example of this."

"Yes, but you have never failed to rise to the occasion, is the point." Snape replied darkly. "Is there a problem I can help you with, Mr. Malfoy? I am sure some of your frustration and your lack of concentration can be partly attributed to your current colleague." Snape slyly pointed out and Draco nodded in sudden understanding.

"We hardly see one another. She developed a schedule within the first few days and I built my own around hers." He lied through his teeth and Snape smiled.

"Good to know that that is not what is contributing to your problem whatever it may be but that still leaves more unanswered questions." Snape leaned forward and folded his hands in front of him. He looked suspicious but knew when to let things go "As you know, the Malfoy fortune has been left in your name?" Snape questioned and Draco rolled his eyes.

"I got the will just as you did." Draco said sharply and Snape nodded, a realizing spark in his eyes.

"Then you know you have certain responsibilities that you were formerly spared?" He asked and it was Draco's turn to nod. "Good, then I should not have to go into too much detail when I tell you to think with your mind, not your heart, nor other attributes teenage boys may feel the need to satiate." Snape said and Draco felt a rush of heat come to his pale cheeks.

"You have a family name to carry on and your mother has asked me to spare her this talk since she knows how you look up to me as a male figure in your life. Remember the value of blood, Draco, especially your own." Snape stood and Draco followed suit. "Truly take into account all the things I have mentioned here." He said while clapping Draco on the shoulder.

"Yes sir." He replied compliantly and Snape smiled, his dark eyes glittering out of his sallow, pale lids. Snape leaned forward, placing his full weight on his hands, which were palms down on the surface of the desk.

"Now, off to what you were doing before." Snape allowed. "But one would hope you were on the pitch watching the Gryffindors get the stuffing beat out of them by the Ravenclaw team." Snape said and Draco froze as he saw the look of recall on his head of house's face. "I neglected to ask for a report. Did you discover anything new with the Veritaserum solution?" Snape asked and Draco smiled.

"Not as much as you would have expected." Snape frowned slightly and Draco shrugged, saying his goodbye then walked as quickly as he could towards to the library.

Upon entering he saw, to his disappointment, that the room was empty. The mudblood was probably on the Quidditch pitch cheering on her friends, Draco thought. With a sigh he set his bag carelessly down at the table.

All of the sudden, feeling as if there wasn't much incentive to stay in the room alone, Draco ran a hand through his bleach-blond hair and let a deep, calming breath pass between his lips. Deciding he would much prefer to take a shower then work right now he left his bag behind and walked slowly and purposefully to the prefectorial dormitory.

Glumly saying the password, Draco entered the warmly lit large center room. He didn't even take the time for a quick look around before swinging open the door into the Slytherin dorm and walking straight to his dresser where he found a fresh set of clean clothes (not his uniform.)

He bundled everything carelessly into his arms and entered the conjoining bathroom.

After stepping into the glass-doored stall, Draco showered slowly, letting the water flow through his hair and over his body in endless torrents that soothed his every nerve. Unlike the Slytherin showers in the normal dorms, these were warmed automatically. One did not have to turn the water on, wait five minutes, and take a quick shower that was often too warm or too cold.

_Think with your mind, not your heart, nor other attributes teenage boys may feel the need to satiate…_ What gave Snape the nerve to speak with him about such matters? Duties such as those were reserved for the father or immediate male family, not one's head of house and potions master. And where would anyone get the idea that he had forgotten his duty to his _name,_ Draco wondered…

Perhaps Crabbe had taken it upon himself to inform his mother of their little falling out. Or worse, Pansy had delivered her all-star performance speech to someone else besides him and word had leaked to "the homestretch" and this was his mother's way of warning him. Either way it was not good. Someone in Hogwarts had taken on the role of a spy, a spy that Draco needed to seek out and destroy, for if there was in deed some kind of observer than Draco was at a great disadvantage.

Leaning forward, Draco rested his head against the wall and savored the feeling of cool mingled with warmth as it spread in the form of a shiver throughout his body. It had been a while since he could enjoy the soothing touch of water on flesh as well as being able to think things through properly without coming to an either incorrect or irrational conclusion.

After washing, Draco stepped from the shower and grabbed his silver towel off of the rack outside the shower door. He walked slowly to the sink while thoroughly drying his hair then finished drying.

His clothes were a wrinkled mess on the counter and looking at them, Draco decided that some semblance of order needed to be displayed. After all, Draco still had all the pride in the world in himself.

Draco wrapped the towel securely around his waist and walked out of the bathroom fully intending to change when he was in the Slytherin dorm. But when Draco entered the Slytherin dorm and turned around, he realized it was not the Slytherin dorm at all. _This is unbelievable… _He had walked into the Gryffindor dormitory and stood frozen in front of the door, his clothes bundled in his arms only a towel wrapped around his waist.

The scene before him would have seemed hilariously funny had he not been involved Draco decided. Granger was sitting comfortably on her couch, her face red with agitation and Weaselby, his ears as red as his hair, was standing over by her desk in his Quidditch robes.

Silently and with a smirk on his face, Draco reached behind him and turning the doorknob uttered a curse. It was locked from the inside, which suddenly made sense and Draco could have laughed at his horribly bad luck. Calmly he let his hands fall back to his side and watching in mild discomfort as their personal argument continued he waited to be discovered.

"Ron, you're not making any sense." The Granger snapped in a tone that Draco often heard when she was addressing him. "You need to calm down."

"Don't tell me I need to calm down. Why weren't you there?" He asked. "You always come to the first match of the season, Hermione. We needed you and you were locked up in that stupid library with that stupid git like you always are." Weasley shouted and Draco was slightly impressed but wondered how it made sense that he could shout like that at a woman but not another man…

"Ron, I was asleep. I forgot that the match was today. I don't know how many times I can apologize for something so stupid." Weasley's face turned an even darker shade of red and he gripped his arm so tight that his knuckles turned white.

"You forgot." Weasley stated in a cold and dangerous tone that could have been intimidating under other circumstances. "Well," He began. "What if I were to accidentally forget to ask you to the ball?" Weasley asked and the mudblood had obviously heard enough.

"Get out and leave me alone until you can treat me with the respect I deserve." Granger said and Weasley nodded.

"My pleasure, you know-" Draco cringed as Weaselby turned and stopped dead, staring at Draco.

"Hello." Draco said in voice that suggested he was much calmer than he actually was. The mudblood's head snapped around and Draco gave her a short wave and an unperturbed smile. "I came to check out the view in here but it seems you don't have any windows either… I'll be going." Draco secured his towel and began walking to the door.

"No, that's fine. I'll just leave you two here to sort things out." Weaselby said bitterly and walked out the door slamming it so hard behind him that the walls shook. The Gryffindor banner was knocked from the wall and floated gracefully to the floor in silence.

"What's _his_ problem?" Draco asked mockingly and Granger glared at him. "It was an honest mistake, Granger."

"Talk to me when you're clothed." Granger snarled and Draco let out a short laugh. "You know where the door is." She reiterated and Draco nodded.

"I'm truly sorry, I wasn't paying attention, granted I should have been, but I wasn't. So, I'll see you later then." He said uncomfortably and she nodded.

Draco left the room and walked into the prefectorial common room with a smile on his face. He was pretty sure it would be a permanent thing. Over all he thought this was a very funny situation. He didn't understand why she was taking it so personally. That Weaselby character was a jackass to everyone, why did she think she was any different? _Because she had been… until you,_ the little voice in Draco's mind answered.

"Don't see how it's my fault he needs constant affirmation that he's the only male at Hogwarts she looks twice at." Draco muttered to himself angrily as he threw open the door to the Slytherin prefect dorm and walked to his dresser.

After Draco was dressed in normal school uniform he sighed loudly, desperately. Opening the second drawer down he reached inside, his fingertips blindly searching. Coarse parchment met his finger and Draco retrieved the letter from the deep, enchanted drawer. The envelope was torn slightly in the corner but was otherwise untouched and Draco could feel the small particles of sandy paper fall as he rubbed it idly with his thumb.

His father's will… Draco completed opening the envelope and extracted the yellowing parchment from within. He had lied to Snape that morning. He hadn't read the will yet, hadn't been able to look at the neat, curvy cursive that he had seen his father use to write out a certificate for someone's death. The same handwriting he had seen in ever letter he had ever received from home.

Slowly unfolding the parchment, Draco felt his heart begin to pound behind his rib cage. A feeling of grief settled in the very pit of his stomach and he began to read his father's last will and testament.

_I, Lucius Malfoy, being of sound and disposing mind and memory do make, publish, and declare the following to be my Last Will and Testament, hereby revoking all wills made by me at any time heretofore._

_I Nominate, constitute, and appoint my wife, Narcissa Malena Malfoy to be the sole executor and trustee of this, my will. If she is unable or unwilling to act, I then nominate, constitute and appoint my son, Draconis Aquilus Malfoy to be the sole executor of this, my will._

_I, Lucius Malfoy, Give, devise, and bequest all of my property of every nature and kind and whatsoever situate, including any property over which I may have a general power or appointment to my said trustee…_

As Draco read through the mundane details of the will he felt his stomach rise and anger coursed through him. He wasn't in it, not once was his name mentioned other than as a mere formality. The Malfoy estate was not his, but his mother's…Now Draco understood the knowing expression Snape had given him.

Draco didn't even bother reading the rest of the document before crumpling it into his fist and throwing it as hard as he could across the room. After years of enduring his father's hell this is what he got. Nothing but trinkets and a mere namesake. He had given his life to his father's cause and he had nothing, but Draco supposed that was how it was supposed to work all along. Those who were innocent gave more but never got their gold's worth in the end.

Draco hit his dresser drawer closed with a fierce punch and cursed under his breath as he felt the tender skin of his knuckles split. The envelope fell off the dresser and drifted grandly to the marble flooring. Upon its making contact with the hard floor Draco noticed an additional piece of parchment housed within its confines.

Bending down slowly, Draco took the envelope once again in his hands and peered inside. Sure enough there was another letter enclosed. Draco took out the single piece of lonely parchment and unfolded it gently. The excitement of the last letter he thought had drained him but he was wrong. He felt the rush of adrenaline through his body as he began to read.

Dear Draco,

Son of mine how you have failed me. Cowardly and weak you have let me down, you have let you mother down, and you have let your blood down. I wish you the only the most fortunate luck in your future endeavors and only hope you can overcome the shame you should feel without destroying yourself. If only you had put half the amount of devotion you have for your schoolwork into what truly matters, you would be spared his negative attentions.

Beware of those who hate you but only those who love you and you love back can destroy you.

Your father, your superior

Lucius Malfoy

Draco read and reread the letter several times before he actually accepted what it said. His father had called him a coward. "Fuck you." He told the letter. "_Fuck_ you!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. Draco made sure that this letter met the same fate if not a worse one than the other one and left the Slytherin dorms in a hurry.

He walked through the prefectorial commons to the Gryffindor door and banged loudly three times. Granger opened the door a crack and upon seeing his face she sighed.

"What do you need, Malfoy?' She asked and Draco wondered what the hell he was doing.

"I don't know." He exclaimed, his voice filled with repressed anger. "I don't know. Forget it." He said and stormed off in the other direction.

"Wait!" She shouted after him and he heard her following. "Draco, slow down." She begged but Draco felt as though he had hell biting at his heels and he _couldn't _stop. "Draco!" Granger shouted as he exited the common room and began speeding through corridors. He heard her stop and the sound of her voice faded.

Draco spent the next three hours alone in the library poring over the documents brooding and as odd as it seemed, even to him, he wished that Auru were there. The little kelltor was very perceptive and knew how to comfort.

Draco looked down at the parchment and focused on the sequence of numbers with an unwavering concentration. So far they had only deciphered and had the key to fifty sequences, which may have seemed like quite an accomplishment in the face of the project's difficulty but to Draco, it was failure. Fifty out of five thousand was a speck on the map, a grain of sand on a beach and they had a long ways to go yet.

Filling in the blanks was the hardest part for Draco because in order to fill it in properly one has to do a string of lengthy equations and even then it was a guess and check process that more often than not was wrong.

So into the documents Draco was that he did not notice when the door opened and Samuel walked in. After a few minutes Samuel gave a small cough and Draco looked up, annoyed.

"Yes?" Draco questioned and Samuel shrugged.

"What are we doing?" He asked and Draco rolled his eyes with a loud sigh.

"Right now we're trying to decipher Xander's complex codes. He used a new one for ever spell he attempted to create, which creates a pain in the neck for us." Draco explained. "We've organized all of the documents into all their respective categories and all you have to do is choose one and dig in."

"Right, where's the Granger girl?" Samuel asked and Draco shrugged. "Well," Samuel began while clapping. "Might as well have a go, right?"

But Draco gave no reply, he was already absorbed in his work again. His focus however, did not keep him from hearing the Hufflepuff mutter something like overly dedicated under his breath, which made Draco smirk.

_Better than being under dedicated…_A half an hour into work Draco heard the door open and close again and looked around. Samuel had left. All of his documents he had been working on were scattered about his workspace and Draco could have had a fit but before he could throw anything about, Granger entered, her bag slung over her shoulder.

"How long was Samuel here?" Asked Granger in a quietly conscious voice that she had learned to use when he had been working for long periods of time.

"Half an hour. He couldn't hack it." Draco said with a bitter smirk. "Neither can I, but _I_ won't give up."

"You _are_ stubborn." She stated while coming further into the room and setting her bag down on the table. After grabbing her file from the shelf she took her seat across the table from Draco and started working.

Draco didn't know how long he worked straight but eventually he let his eyes take a break from the abuse of work. He rubbed his eyes and laid his head down. Five minutes later he was ready to begin again.

Looking across the table at Granger he let a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth. She was chewing nervously at her bottom lip and she subconsciously fingered the necklace around her neck. A long strand of bushy brown hair fell in front of her face and she expelled it with a puff of air.

Draco shook his head while looking back down at the yellowed parchment but he found himself unable to concentrate. He felt like talking about what had happened, he wanted to scream and rant that all he was worth to his father was a dagger, a golden, gilded bow, and a ring encrusted with the Malfoy emblem. But, as always, he kept to himself and as always he felt the emotion eat away at his composure until the mudblood noticed.

"Is something wrong?" She asked and Draco was jolted from his thoughts.

"No, why?" He asked suspiciously and Granger shrugged.

"You were holding your quill so tight that I feared you were going to snap it in half and burst the ink all over your translations." She said and he set his quill idly down on the desk as if it were the enemy.

"Wouldn't matter much, would it? I'm not much farther than I was yesterday." He exclaimed and Granger shook her head.

"We're getting _somewhere,_ Draco and you have to be happy with that." She preached contentedly.

"Well, I'm not." He rebuked childishly.

"That's your deal, then." Granger said while looking back to her translations. "If you cannot see that what we're doing here is taking baby steps in the right direction then why are you still here? Why are you still working so late into the night that when you leave you go straight to classes? Why are you?" The way she said it seemed to Draco more like a challenge than a question or anything else.

"Because you are." He said and Granger laughed.

"Because Draco Malfoy cannot let me, a mudblood, do anything that may make the substance of my blood or lack thereof meaningless." She said coldly and Draco realized that was just it. "Not as honorable a reason as you would make it seem."

"I never claimed to be a Gryffindor, did I?" It was a rhetorical question and Granger knew it so she kept quiet. In a half an hour this argument would be forgotten and they both would be on less but still bitter speaking terms.

"No. No, you didn't." She said and Draco went back to work what couldn't have been ten minutes later Samuel walked into the room.

"Hello there." He greeted cheerfully. "Don't you two look like the two gloomiest people there ever was. Granger, you should be celebrating, the Gryffindors won because of your friend Potter, though I suspect that's nothing new." Granger gave a curt nod and Samuel went silent. He walked to his desk and took his seat.

Something Draco noticed about Samuel that annoyed him to no end was that he didn't have the slightest capacity to shut up. Silence was just something that was unacceptable when Samuel was in the room with them. Knowing this beforehand, Draco set his quill down and waited.

"You two have dates for the dance?" He asked and Draco smirked. Granger looked up, a slightly annoyed expression on her face. "I'm going with Hannah Abbot, do you know her? I think she's in your year, eh?" He asked and Granger nodded.

"Yes, I know Hannah, she's a sweet girl. She's a Hufflepuff though, we don't really see a lot of one another, you know?" Samuel nodded.

"Well?" He prompted. "Who are you two going with? Both of you must have dates by now." Samuel stated knowingly a wide smirk on his angular face. "The dance is in what, four days?"

"I don't have a proper date yet but once Ron cools down I think we'll be going together." Granger said and Draco coughed inwardly. He thought that had been over months before and either Weaselby was incapable of letting go or Granger was settling to go with someone familiar since that Krum guy wasn't there.

"Really now? Ron Weasley, you say?" Samuel asked, a curious expression stretching across his face. Granger nodded with an odd expression of her own. "You see, that's quite impossible as Ron's going with a friend of mine. You heard of Amber Solitaire?" He asked.

Granger nodded dumbly and Draco suddenly felt very sympathetic. "Yes, I know who Amber is. We're friendly acquaintances. When was this arrangement made?" She asked and Samuel looked uncomfortable.

"Earlier today. All I know about the whole affair is that he was storming through halls, she said hi, they talked, and he asked her. He said he didn't have a date and she thought he was cute, so there it is." Draco would have laughed if the situation had been the other way around with Weasley being the one played, but it wasn't and though she was good at hiding it, Draco could tell that she was very hurt.

"I see." She said shortly. "Well, I wish Amber the best of luck with him." Granger stood slowly and Draco saw the traces of tears behind her brown eyes as she packed her folder away and put all of her stuff into her bag. She turned to leave and Draco stood.

"Want to go for a walk?" He asked and she looked up at him, her eyes searching for the answer to the question he was asking himself.

"No, I'll be fine. Thank you for your concern, have fun with your documents." She stated with an air of finality. "I have some schoolwork I need to complete, I wouldn't have been here very long anyways."

Draco nodded and sat down, watching her leave, head down and book bag slung despondently over her left shoulder.

Draco looked down at his parchment and sighed loudly.

"Fancy her do you?" Samuel asked and Draco rolled his eyes.

"No, but I care when she's this upset. Granger doesn't concentrate well when she and Weaselby have an argument and this shit that he's pulling I have a feeling is going to set us back an entire week if not two." He said quickly and Samuel nodded.

After two more minutes Draco decided he had had enough fo this for now. Standing, he bade Samuel farewell and followed after Granger.

Walking through the winding corridors Draco sauntered to the prefectorial dormitories where he assumed (correctly) Granger would have made her way to.

He heard her voice even before he had said the password but it was not her normal voice nor was it her normal tone.

As he entered the large common space he saw something zoom towards his face and ducked just in time to avoid a fireplace ornament aimed to behead him.

Looking around for the source of the projectile, Draco saw Granger over by the fireplace another ornament in her hand.

"Wait. Come on now, Granger. Let's think about this logically." He soothed but Granger's grip only tightened. "What good would it do for you to bludgeon _me_ when the one you _really_ want to beat to death is Weaselby?" He asked.

"I would be freeing the world of one more sleazy boy!" She shouted. Granger hesitated only a second before letting the porcelain statuette lose towards his face with as much force behind her arm as she possessed. He ducked once more and she crossed her arms over her chest, brooding as if she were disappointed.

She had a crazed look in her eyes, that same look that his mother often had after her and his father had gotten into a fight and punches were thrown. Suddenly Draco would do anything to make it stop, to make that wounded look in her eyes disappear.

"We could go together." Draco suggested rather halfheartedly. "I- I don't have a date and Pansy's been all over me for the past three weeks. _I _don't want to go alone and I'm sure _you _don't want to go alone either and Weasel dumped you for some Ravenclaw…" He paused for a second to gauge her reaction to his proposition and Granger lifted another statuette from the ledge. "No, no, no! It all makes perfect sense, you see. _I'm_ a prefect, _you're_ a prefect and… well, we could call it a … a mutual acceptance of terms."

"_Right…_I'm supposed to take what you say seriously when I have something heavy and slightly lethal ready to throw at your head?" She asked and Draco nodded vehemently. "Why? Wouldn't it risk your _image?"_ She asked, her voice full of suspicion.

"I have no image." Draco said and the way he said it made her set the small object of death back down in its rightful place. "So?" He questioned and Granger shrugged.

"So?" Her shoulders drooped in indignation. "Do I have a choice?" She asked and it was Draco's turn to be hurt.

"Of course you do. Go alone if you want, it's _your_ image you should be worried about. I can't wait to see the look on Weasley's face when he sees you enter alone and in the same state you're in now." Draco was using reverse psychology and despite the fact that he knew it was dangerous, he also knew it would work.

"Which would be worse? That look of triumph when you enter alone or that look of shock and jealousy when you enter on the arm of a Slytherin prince?"

"I don't want to go to make him jealous. I want to go to have a good time or in the least to have done all that work to see a good event…" She said sadly while shaking her head.

"Then a good time we shall have. I thought you and I got along fine." Draco said slowly. "Two people who spill their blood into something together for so long and so viciously should be able to attend an event together without there being anything to worry about image wise."

"I suppose you have a point, Mr. Malfoy." Granger conceded with a small grin. "But, the question of the matter would be, could you handle me a whole night without being vicious?" She asked and Draco shrugged.

"Can you?" Granger cracked a full smile and he took a step forward. "Is this a deal then?"

"I suppose so, Mr. Malfoy. What did you call this? A mutual acceptance of terms?" Draco nodded. "I do believe you have a date."

"You as well, miss Granger."

"You know, as much as I love my surname, I'm getting tired of being called Granger. You have officially worn it out." She stated bluntly.

"Does that mean I have to call you by your Christian name?" Draco asked fearfully and Granger nodded. "So, I have to call you Hermo-ninny?" He mocked and Granger brandished the statuette in his direction once again. "All right, I suppose Hermione isn't the worst name one could ever have been given.

"Do you think Samuel's still in the library?" Hermione asked and Draco shook his head.

"With no one to talk to? Honestly, I thought you had caught on Gr- Hermione…" Hermione gave him the quick thumbs up sign and he coughed loudly.

"Good. Maybe we can actually get some work done. I don't know about you but I feel suddenly enthused." She said and Draco shrugged.

"Could it be you're imagining the look on Weaselby's face when he sees you with me?" He asked and she considered it.

"That may just be it."

There was silence all the way to the library but it was the kind of silence where it would be wrong to break it. A silence of acceptance that had never before been felt between a Slytherin and a Gryffindor.

When they entered they discovered that Draco had been right once again. Samuel was nowhere to be seen and once again all of his stuff was scattered throughout his workspace, something that drove Draco insane.

Sitting down in their respective places, Draco threw Hermione a quick glance, which she returned. Something had definitely changed and for just a moment Draco felt the tightness in his stomach that was almost always present release and subside.

After a few minutes of focus Hermione broke the silence. "Do you think this curse was as popular then as it is now?" She asked and Draco looked up.

"Probably." He replied shortly.

"Do you think there were men like Voldemort around?" She added thoughtfully. Draco shook his head slowly. "No, seriously."

"Yes, I do. Men like Voldemort are always around and they always have people like death eaters to support them. It's a cycle that is inevitable for some and others have the resources to avoid it." Draco said while looking away

"I don't understand how it can be inevitable." She spoke with a hint of disgust in her voice and Draco gave her a smile that was real but weak.

"You wouldn't." He stated darkly.

Hermione suddenly reached across the table and grabbed Draco's left arm. Before he could react she had pushed his sleeve up to his elbow and inspected his forearm only to find it pale and untouched except for a series of small scars, a reminder of a painful past.

Draco knew what she had been looking for and pulled away angrily. "What the hell's your problem?" He exclaimed shaking his sleeve into its former, more comfortable and concealing position.

Hermione looked him in they eye, a look of pleasant surprise on her face. "I needed to see. I could stand going to the ball with a Slytherin, but not a death eater. " She said and Draco nodded, his anger had not yet dissipated and he was feeling a lot less than friendly towards the little Gryffindor prefect.

"Well, Miss Granger, I can guarantee to you that you will never see that mark on _my_ arm." He said coldly and Hermione nodded nobly. Draco could tell that she was not in the least embarrassed about their short yet seemingly intimate contact, which made what he was feeling much worse for him.

"Let's hope not." She said bluntly and they both went back to work without saying another word.


	15. The Boggart, Draco's Real Fear

A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short and it's a little late… My cat died this weekend and I just thought it should be known that in all my fifteen years and some odd months I have never lived a day without seeing her. I will still keep updating regularly but forgive me if my entries start to get all dark and depressed. I am very sad that she is gone and some of that may rub off in my writing so I apologize beforehand… Thanks to all of you loyal reviewers, I appreciate every single word you write to me.

Chapter 15: The Boggart, Draco's Real Fear

Sitting in the room alone with Granger after the whole event seemed to Draco like it would be awkward but surprisingly enough, it was just as it had always been, possibly better.

They had even had a small argument. Draco had automatically (incorrectly as Granger pointed out so kindly) that she would of course attune to his choice in theme as far as the colors they would wear went. He had kindly, but seriously, told her that he would be dressing as Slytherin as Slytherin could be and she had politely rebuked that she would match him by dressing as Gryffindor as Gryffindor could be. Quite the chaotic spectacle they would make, the two of them.

Under the pretense that Granger would dress how she willed, Draco wasn't about to go out of his way to make himself presentable but some innate pride he had in himself would not allow him to underdress for the occasion either. So Draco sent his mother an owl asking for three hundred galleons, enough to buy anything he would need for the dance and more. A day later he had three hundred and seventy-five galleons for spending (his mother always sent extra just in case anything else came up).

This week it just so happened Snape was freely passing out undeserved passes to enter the wizarding town of Hogsmeade during the course of the school days before the ball to Slytherins. As it turned out, Samuel was not as well informed as he had led them all to believe, for the ball was in fact the Wednesday of the following week, not the upcoming Wednesday.

"Draco, shouldn't I go with you so that we can match our ball wear?" Asked Pansy from behind and Draco shook his head. _Finally, my own sweet revenge…_

"I'm going with someone else, we've already settled all the details." Draco said and Pansy smirked as if she knew something he didn't.

"Who would this date be? Do I know her?" She asked and Draco once again shook his head. "She's a Slytherin no doubt…" Pansy searched his face, which he kept emotionless and void of implications of any sort. "She's not."

"Right you are." He said joyously, feeling a small bounce in his step begin to form.

"Who?" Her composure was failing and Draco reveled in the half hurt and half bitterly inquisitive look.

"I remember playing a familiar game with you." Draco said. "I'm sure you can guess the answer… No? Well, it starts with a "g" and ends with an uess." He finished and Pansy let out a short, forced laugh.

"We'll see. Word of traitors travels fast." Pansy said, he voice filled with disgust.

"It's a good thing we've both agreed not to whisper a word then, eh?" He asked and she stomped her foot.

"I will get you, Draconis, one way or another I will have you and no matter how many other girls you fuck along the way, know this. Your path will always intercede with mine whether it is with your will or against it." Pansy said and she turned on her heel and walked away, head held high.

"And that's where you're wrong." He said to himself. At the time Draco was missing charms with the Hufflepuffs so he had to hurry. He had DADA class next and he could not afford to miss even one class. Things had really picked up and Alias seemed intent on moving as fast as possible without throwing every student in the class off whereas charms was moving at the same slow, and easy-going pace it had began at.

Walking down the long dirt road to the village of Hogsmeade, Draco wrapped his scarf tighter around his neck to block the cold that was currently sending shivers up his spine that were sharp and almost painful in their intensity.

Five minutes into the walk, a cobblestone road appeared and all he had to do was follow it at his own set pace, which he decided would be brisk. The conditions outside were worsening and he would not have been surprised had it started snowing within the next couple of days, maybe hours.

Entering the perimeter of the town the dead ruins he had come upon sprang to life in vivid detail. The once silent air rang with so many voices that Draco was following at least twelve different conversations at once. But when his ears and nose finally adapted to the sudden onslaught of culture, Draco felt himself ease.

Walking through the crowded, seemingly tiny street Draco craned his neck to gaze at all the different shops and finally came across one worthy of his time. "Tyler's Formal Dress Shop, eh?" Draco read out loud and he walked into the shop, his moneybag gripped loosely in his pocket.

The door opened with a loud magical ring and Draco almost jumped. "May I help you good sir?" Asked a male voice from across the room and Draco turned to face it.

"I have a very formal school function approaching and I need something suitable." He said and the man nodded.

"You have indeed come to the right place. We have everything one could need for such occasions here." He said while walking out from behind the counter.

"Let's hope." Draco said darkly. "I have a class to attend in an hour and forty-five minutes and I cannot afford to tarry."

"I see.. Well, we don't have much time so let us get started, eh?" The man asked and Draco noted his apparently effeminate walk and grace.

"That would be nice."

"Do you have a specific price range you are looking for?" The man asked and Draco decided to fib. Wasting money wouldn't hurt considering, but that didn't mean he should if he didn't have to.

"I was thinking between one hundred and two hundred galleons." He said and the man nodded.

"You have _definitely_ come to the right place. Do you attend Hogwarts?" He asked and Draco gave a curt nod as he looked around the small yet well-filled store. "I have a daughter going there. We're very proud. What year are you?"

"Sixth, I'm a prefect." Draco replied.

"Oh, well you probably don't know my little girl, Sarah, then. She's a second year. What house are you in?" The man asked while giving him a thorough overview. "Slytherin, I'm willing to bet." Draco nodded. "Was there anything you had in mind specifically?"

"Yes, I am looking for an attractive combination of silver, black, and green. Not those fake and faded bright colors either. I want a nice dark jade and a true black and well, silver is silver." The man nodded.

"Let's have a look shall we?" Draco followed the nervous man around the store to rack after rack until both their arms were filled with vests of every cloth imaginable, trousers of every style, and undershirts of all different design.

"Try this combination." The man, Jeff, said while holding out a set of clothes. Draco took the clothes and walked to the dressing room, which smelled oddly of perfume.

Five minutes later Draco emerged from the dressing room. "No, no, try this one." Draco nodded and walked back into the dressing room, something that happened many times before they finally settled on an outfit.

Draco paid the man one hundred and fifty galleons for the clothing and Jeff told him to retrieve it the day after next when he would surely have had it fitted and ready for Draco to wear.

"Thank you." Jeff said with a short wave and a wink and Draco waved back as he exited the small store. Thanks to Jeff's efficient and professional work, Draco still had a little less than an hour to wander aimlessly and waste him money on small useless trinkets.

Before he reached the end of the road, Draco was drawn into a Quidditch supply store where he bought new enchanted broom grips and a higher quality of shin guards. After buying what he wanted from every other store that caught his attention he decided that is was time to head back the other way.

Near the entrance to Hogsmeade Draco saw something in the window of a store that captivated him. It was a small, delicate necklace. He neared the window to get a better look. It was a thin golden chain and the pendant at its apex could not be overlooked. The stone, he now recognized as mood stone, was polished so well that he could see himself.

It was a real mood necklace, Draco considered, not like those cheap one's muggles sold. The real stone was cut from the same stone that crystal balls were but they were soaked in a magic sort of vinegar that brought the stone to life from the core and sensitized it. It detected small changes in voice fluctuations and heat and projected certain colors of significant meaning to the surface of the stone.

Draco, still holding one hundred-fifty galleons in his pocket entered the small store and purchased the necklace. Surprisingly, it only cost ninety-four which left him with only fifty-six galleons… _Still more than Weaselby's ever seen in his entire life_, Draco bet maliciously. He was feeling more vicious towards Weasley at the moment than he had ever in fact felt during their previous five years at Hogwarts.

As Draco was walking back to the castle he was suffering from the normal buyer's regret but the odd thing was, he felt guilty about buying the grips and shin guards and the small replica sword of Aragorn, but not the necklace…

Reaching the front doors Draco decided he would give the necklace to Hermione to wear since she probably didn't have any decent jewelry of her own and he had one necklace that _he_ would never wear.

But how to give it to her without her knowing it was from him? What better idea was there but to leave it hidden within some niche in the library for her to find? So that was exactly what he did.

As he was hiding it the bell rang, releasing them all to go to their next class and Draco did so, an odd feeling of elation clouding his mind.

Entering the DADA classroom, Draco took his normal seat in the front row. Since he no longer had Crabbe and Goyle to socialize with, he had a lot more room for guests at his lonely table.

Right before the last bell rang, three flustered Gryffindors entered the classroom. Weaselby and Potty walked straight to the back without one look back and Hermione took the empty seat next to Draco, a sigh of anger and frustration expelled from her lungs.

"Good afternoon class." Said Dark in her falsely sweet voice as she swooped in from the doorway and walked to the front and center of the classroom. "I have a special lesson planned for today and since it is the last day before we all leave on holiday, I expect you'll all want to choose your own partners…" There were many out callings of glee and happiness from every corner of the room and a silent excitement settled over everyone. The ball was coming up soon.

"Settle down." She said. "Settle down, now." The class' loudness slowly tapered until it was only a whisper here and a whisper there. "Good. Pull out your books and turn to page three twenty-five. Today we will be learning about-"

"Xander…" Draco heard Hermione utter reverently under her breath. "I never stopped to think maybe he was a dark wizard… I never even thought to look him up!" She exclaimed and Dark stopped talking, glaring in their direction.

"Perhaps you two would like to take your conversation outside of my classroom? Mr. Malfoy, I expected better from you." She said and Draco, for the life of him, could not understand why.

"Was Xander an evil wizard?" Hermione asked and Dark looked taken aback at Granger's nonchalant snub of her sharp chastisement.

"Whomsoever decided the exact definition of evil would have to answer that but since no one has, as of yet, thought themselves worthy of such categorizing, we shall assume evil means bad." There were snickers around the class and Draco hushed them all rather loudly.

"Was Xander a bad wizard?"

"No." Dark said sharply.

"Then why are we learning about him in defense against the dark arts?" Hermione question and Dark smiled.

"The first _good_ question you have asked in a while Granger." Dark said. Turning on an old fashioned film projector she turned off the lights with a flick of her wand. "As some of you already know, Xander was a famous alchemist as well as an avid arithmancist. His works varied so greatly that we are still sifting through documents to give him credit for work formerly accredited to other wizards of his time." Dark explained quietly. There was a click and an image of a very hairy, bushy-looking man appeared on the chalkboard. "This is said to be an accurate portrait of Xander. He was compared mostly to a kind of human mole; he lived underground, ate vegetables and bread, had no contact with the outside world, and seemed to have a general disliking of the human race."

"Not shocking." Draco muttered.

"Some even think he may have been a vampire or a werewolf but those are just the sorts of legends to pop up around a man of such genius. Beyond those childish superstitions comes the fact that Xander was the very first wizard to attempt creating a counter-spell for the killing curse." The class went suddenly quiet and Dark looked hard around the room. The projector clicked and the portrait of Xander was replaced by one of a beautiful smiling woman and a small child. "Xander's family, a wife and a son, was murdered on the eve of his greatest discovery by a jealous wizard by the name of Treadle Hurt who used none other than the killing curse, which is why Xander began his research."

Draco was listening intently and he could sense the same extreme concentration from Hermione. "Xander spent the last fifty-nine years of his life trying to create a counter-spell. In fact, Xander died in our very own school according to historical documents." She said while looking specifically at him and Hermione. "Two of our very own students are working to discover the mysteries hidden in Xander's works. Have you found anything at all?" She asked and Draco elected to answer.

"So far we have just begun deciphering his language. As you mentioned, he was an amazing arithmancist and knew his codes and how to make them unreadable. We are making headway to be sure, but at a very slow pace." He said slowly and Dark nodded.

"Now, I would like you all, for our last day of class, to spend the rest of this period creating a code that you think will be unbreakable. Then, over holiday our two very own arithmancists will decipher them and grade you on how well you did." Dark said and there were murmurs of excitement. "Now, since we do not want biased grades I will make sure Malfoy and Granger are both given random papers. Get to work- Miss Granger, Mr. Malfoy, may I speak with you for a moment?"

Both Draco and Hermione stood. Hermione seemed a bit irked and it wasn't like Draco could blame her. They had both been volunteered for something that would no doubt take hours from their holiday that could be spent breaking _real_ codes that meant something.

Following Dark into her private office, Draco threw Hermione a questioning glance and she shrugged. She had no idea what they were in for and there was no way they could have prepared themselves for what they saw.

"You two have your own special assignment over break." Dark said while proudly pointing at a gigantic Christmas tree. "I cannot for the life of me expel this boggart from the Christmas tree and I heard you both had extensive practice with boggarts in your third year. It needs to be boggart free by the Yule ball and… well, I'm sure it wouldn't hurt for you to decorate it."

"That's it?" Draco asked and Dark nodded. "A boggart?"

"As simple as it seems to you, Mr. Malfoy, I would like you to remember and respect that I have over twenty more years of experience and I myself could not get rid of the thing." Dark said reprovingly.

"All right, why didn't you ask another teacher?" Hermione asked while crossing her arms over her chest. Like him, he could tell that she assumed there was something more to this than Dark was letting them in on and it was a bit unnerving.

"They're all so busy and this tree is a special surprise in tribute to your former headmaster whom I was led to believe left last year." Dark said, lacking the confidence needed behind such a statement to make it sound even the slightest bit sincere.

"Yes, Professor Dumbledore left." Hermione said sadly and Dark nodded.

"I never met him but from what I often hear from all the people he's touched that he was a great headmaster." Dark said and Draco scoffed.

"_Is_, a great headmaster." Hermione snapped defensively. "As far as I am concerned he is still our headmaster. The only reason he is still 'deposed' is because the ministry refused to accept that Voldemort was back until it was too late! And now he's in hiding because of some fanatic death eater who threatened his life over the summer and everyone knew he was too valuable to the cause to lose…" Draco looked to Hermione who was obviously very passionate about whom she spoke of and she stared back, her eyes glittering with sadness and rage. She was insane, she was intense, she was over-reacting, but she was beautiful just then.

"I was told quite a different tale Miss Granger and though you think you know what is going on beyond the walls of your comfortable school, your little mind cannot fathom what is going on as we speak." Dark said dangerously. "Dumbledore was sent away from this school in shame and no matter how vehemently you defend him, it will not change the simple fact that he sacrificed so many to protect himself."

"That is not true!" Hermione shouted, taking a step forward and tightening her fists menacingly. Draco had never seen her so furious and he felt the need to intervene but held steady his ground.

"You are dismissed back to class, now go." Hermione did not move and Draco was not about to leave her behind.

"Take it back!" She demanded but Dark was unresponsive. "I was there! I saw the angry, the frustrated, and the hurt look on his face." Hermione said her voice cracking. "When Harry cried, I would bet my wages for the rest of my life that Dumbledore did as well."

"Come on, Hermione." Draco said his voice serious but soothing all at once but the girl refused to move.

"I would suggest you do as Mr. Malfoy says lest you wish to find yourself as well as him in the _true _headmaster's office." Hermione went rigid and Draco braced himself for the worst.

A half an hour later Draco and Hermione were sitting in front of Dumbledore in Hogsmeade. Hermione seemed pleasantly unsurprised whereas Draco had what he was sure was a permanent look of shock plastered to his face.

"Explain, please, Miss Granger why you are once again in my presence, this time for fighting with a teacher." _Once again?_

"Alias Dark called you a coward _and_ made it a point to tell me I didn't know you as much as I thought I did." Hermione replied and Dumbledore cracked a grin in her general direction.

"You don't Miss Granger. Why are you so confident that I am not a coward?" He asked in a half-amused voice that Draco admired.

"Because, sir. You have put your life at risk for all of us on more than one occasion and we have no reason to distrust you in the slightest. Dark made it seemed like you were Voldemort in blue robes and a smile."

"Ah, Miss Dark… Our newest addition to the school's staff. I assure you she was not my first choice and it was very out of line for her to share her opinions with you but in the same respect, Miss Granger, I admire your willingness to defend me but she is a teacher and you are a student. You should not have voiced your opinion to her unless you were willing to listen to her side just as avidly." Dumbledore said and Draco huffed under his breath.

"Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore began with a tone of severity rarely heard. "Why are _you_ here?"

"I wasn't about to leave Her- Granger alone in there with Dark. I'm positive one of them would have ended up limb-less or something of the sort." He replied in a cool, calm, and collected voice.

"I see… That was a very chivalrous thing to do." Dumbledore said and Draco jeered mentally while letting out a quiet guffaw. "You disagree."

"I did what was right to _me._ It's not like I saved a village of small defenseless chickens from a raging fire with one hand tied behind my back and my eyes closed." He retorted with a serious expression on his face. "What I did was no more chivalrous than you picking your teeth with a toothpick."

"Mr. Malfoy! That is enough disrespect!" Said the severe voice of McGonagall from the corner and Draco inwardly sighed. He had forgotten she was here. She idolized Dumbledore like he was god, or something of the likes.

"No, Minerva, Draco has a right to his own opinion whether they are wrong to us or right to us. Rude or disrespectful, that is his opinion-"

"He is blatantly mocking you, Albus." McGonagall interrupted angrily.

"And he will learn from his mistakes at some other point in time. Now is not the time, nor the place to be teaching a misled youth morals. Now is the time for investigation." Dumbledore turned to Hermione. "You know that what you did cannot go unpunished, correct?" He asked and Hermione nodded slowly, a sad and distraught look on her face.

"I will write a letter that McGonagall will give to our replacement headmaster saying you are dismissed from Dark's classroom for three days, one day for Mr. Malfoy. Every assignment you miss will be made up cordially and you _will_ show respect to the staff at Hogwarts whether it be Dark or Mr. Filch. Every witch and wizard at that school has earned his or her place and it is not a student's job to question." Dumbledore gave them each a hard look and Draco returned it with a look of his own that looked just as serious from his cold, gray eyes.

"Let's go you two." McGonagall said and Dumbledore shook his head.

"No, no, wait. There is always time for a butter beer, Minerva. Go ask Madame Rosmerta to be a dear and bring us some drinks... Fire Whiskey for me, please." Dumbledore said and Draco grinned. _Fire whiskey? It looked like one of those would do the old man in_.

"You're sick, Albus. Why don't I bring you a nice pepper-up potion instead. No? How about a butter beer?" Dumbledore gave her a severe look that seemed specially modified just for her and she shrugged. "Fine, it's your throat not mine." And she left to make their order.

Draco reached into his pocket for his moneybag but Dumbledore reached across the table and touched Draco's hand, making him tense. "No need, the drinks are on me, Mr. Malfoy. After all, you both are here by my summons." Draco nodded and only when Dumbledore pulled his hand away did he relax.

"So, how are preparations for the Yule ball going? Are you prefects working hard?" He asked and both Draco and Hermione nodded.

"We have all had to learn a few new spells through it all." Hermione said comfortably. How she could talk to a man of such power in such a casual voice made him extremely uneasy. "But Draco and I have had much more to do considering." She said and Draco almost jumped. She had called him Draco in front of the old coot…

"Is that right? What are you and Mr. Malfoy doing?" Dumbledore asked and Draco decided the question was directed at him.

"Well, Miss Granger and I have been assigned a special arithmancy project due to our aptitude and ability to get things done and done well. They discovered a new chamber in the library filled with ancient documents containing hundreds of spells –codes actually- and we have been hired to decipher them for proper documentation." Draco said and Dumbledore seemed genuinely intrigued.

"The author?" He asked.

"Xander." Hermione piped in.

"Intriguing. I suppose you know all about him then? He was killed in Hogwarts, you know." Dumbledore said and Draco leaned forward.

"Killed? We were led to believe that he died of old age…" Draco said and Dumbledore's eyebrows registered slight surprise.

"I am sure you have discovered his mess on the table by now?" Dumbledore asked and both of them nodded. "He was killed, stabbed to death if I remember correctly." Dumbledore explained.

"You were alive?" Draco exclaimed and Dumbledore let out a hearty laugh that turned into a hacking cough.

"Dear me, no." He said after he had regained his weak but steady composure. "We have everything that ever happened on Hogwarts property filed. The headmaster of the time left detailed notes as to how he was found."

"So _you_ knew where the chamber was?" Hermione asked and Dumbledore nodded. "Why didn't you ever tell anyone?" She questioned dumbly.

"No one ever asked. I didn't think it needed to be brought to anyone's immediate attention without purpose." He said shortly and Hermione got the clue that he had other reasons that were not to be discussed here and certainly not with them.

"How much progress have you made?" Dumbledore asked, notably changing the subject.

"So far?" Draco asked and the old man nodded. "Not-"

All of the sudden the door opened and McGonagall walked in, two drinks in her hands followed by Madame Rosmerta who was holding two as well.

"I won't allow you to drink a fire whiskey, headmaster." Rosmerta said kindly but seriously. "Not with your health bein' in the state it's currently in. Now you drink this and get plenty of rest. No more of this island hopping I've heard so much about. You're not as young as you used to be, sir, and this isn't a vacation." Hermione smiled at the childishly brooding expression on the headmaster's face at receiving a pepper-up potion instead of his fire-whiskey.

"Minerva…" He said and McGonagall threw up her hands claiming innocence. "Right. My ears will be steaming for hours." He tossed back the disgusting concoction and Madame Rosmerta left the room satisfied.

After they had finished their drinks they were led back to the castle without even finishing their conversation. Classes were over for the day and Draco was exhausted and went straight to the prefectorial dormitories. He didn't even say goodbye to Hermione

The annoying buzz of Draco's alarm clock woke him in midmorning on the twenty-fourth. He rose slowly from his bed and folded his comforter over neatly. He usually did not displace the covers at all but last night had been full of nightmares and odd dreams, which caused him to stir restlessly in his sleep.

Standing, Draco let out a loud, monstrous yawn and scratched his chest lightly. With a smile he recalled the events of the night before.

Hermione, Samuel, and him had all been working overtime the night before the ball (Samuel had been talking) when Samuel decided to put his folder away. But as he was walking along the wall he noticed a small niche with an elegant necklace hidden in its depths.

"Wow!" He exclaimed happily. "Look at this piece of work." He said turning around and displaying his find. Draco had literally choked on his tongue. "Hannah will love it!"

"You can't give it to _her_!" Draco quickly said and both Hermione and Samuel looked in his direction.

"Why the bloody hell not?" Samuel asked while fingering the piece possessively, a suspicious glare that did not fit his facial structure at all on his face.

"Because… Well, because it's mine." Draco stuttered and Samuel wagged his finger at Draco.

"No it's not! I've just found it. You, you just want it for yourself." He said and Draco sighed. Samuel obviously wanted to play this the hard way. No way was Draco going to lose ninety-four galleons to pride.

"So? Unless you want me to rearrange your face for the ball I suggest you take that as a good enough answer." Draco warned and Samuel opened his mouth to speak but closed it again. "That's what I thought, now hand it on over."

Samuel grasped it tighter but it seemed to Draco as if his face meant more to him than a pretty trinket on a string of gold. "Pay me." He said and Draco laughed out loud, a smirk on his handsomely dark face.

"Yeah right." Draco said.

"Pay me or it goes to Hannah. I'm not afraid of you." Draco glared and folded his arms across his chest.

"See, that's a problem that we can deal with later, after the ball. I doubt you want Hannah to see you with a face as blue as your dress robes that you so vividly described." Draco retorted and Samuel groaned.

"Pay me." Boy, was he relentless!

"Fine. Four galleons." Draco reached in his pocket and pulled out the money. Little did Samuel know he was pricing it ninety galleons too low.

"All right. It looks cheap anyway." Samuel traded the necklace only when he had the four galleons in his hands and Draco smiled.

"Stubborn bastard." He commented dryly and Samuel smiled. "Not a compliment." His smile faded and he left in quite the hurry. Once gone, Hermione turned to Draco, an inquisitive look on her face.

"Why did you fight so hard for that?" She asked and Draco smiled ironically. He had taken so much care in hiding it and it was fated to be known despite all that.

"Here." He handed it to her and she hesitated before taking it into her palms, inspecting it with reverent jealousy.

"It's very beautiful." She said and tried to hand it back to him.

"Keep it. I bought it for you." He said and Hermione blushed, which just made the churning in his stomach worsen.

"This doesn't look cheap." She said slowly while taking a closer look. "And it doesn't look like it's been here very long." She looked into his eyes with her chocolate brown ones and he started packing up his things hurriedly.

"I got it when I was in Hogsmeade the other day. I thought it would go nice with whatever you are wearing." He mumbled and Hermione gave him a small smile that he pretended not to see. "It's a mood pendant, a real one."

"Thank you. And you were right." She stated matter of factly.

"Of course, I'm always right… What exactly am I right about?" He asked while turning to look at her, a silvery strand of his blonde hair falling in front of his eyes.

"It _will_ go with what I'm wearing." Hermione was looking at it again and Draco felt uncomfortable. He wasn't experienced with the whole nervous around a girl act and it wasn't working well for him. It felt like his insides were bent on making him as uncomfortable and outcasted as possible.

"I should go." Draco said and Hermione frowned.

"I thought we were going to work hard the last few days since the ball will be a large interruption…" Hermione said and Draco nodded.

"And we _have_ worked hard. I think I need some time just to brood and think about how bad life sucks. That way, I won't be so negative tomorrow when you actually get to enjoy yourself in my company." He said.

"I _do_ enjoy myself when I'm in your company but not when you're like this. You see?" Hermione asked and Draco nodded, looking anywhere else but at her. His stomach was churning worse than ever and all he wanted to do was run… Run like all Malfoy's did…

With that thought dismissed, Draco made a decision. "Right then, what are you waiting for, let's get started. We have a lot of work to do." Hermione had given him a determined nod and for the five hours they worked after that, the churning settled and a weird yet eerily comfortable silence overcame the room.

Draco let the memory of her perfect smile fade from his mind and mentally smacked himself for wasting time. This was the exact reason why he tried to stay away from situations that caused feelings like this.

It was only seven in the morning but Draco had a lot to do. Grabbing a shirt and a pair of pants, Draco ran through corridor after to corridor until he reached the great hall, which was off limits to the rest of the school until the dance. Draco knocked six times on the door and let out a catcall whistle and the door opened with a loud, heavy creak.

"It was about time you got here, Mr. Malfoy." Said the strained and anxious voice of professor Flitwick. Draco looked around the room and smiled. Things were running seemingly smooth.

"No, no! Don't! Hold it with two hands like this." Draco followed the sound of the voice up to the giant Christmas tree on the stage. Draco looked around for the source of the voice but it seemed to be detached from its owner's body. "Draco!" The voice yelled and Draco looked up at the Christmas tree where Granger was leering out at him from between the branches near the top.

"Granger? Is that you?" He called up to her and she hopped down. The tree must have been fifteen feet tall and she landed flawlessly like a cat. "Is that Dark's tree?" He asked and Hermione shook her head no.

"McGonagall said I'm not supposed to go near Dark's room without someone else who she doesn't hate around… We should get going, then." She said and Draco shrugged.

"They don't need our help?" He asked, following her but throwing a glance backwards. Hermione shook her head.

"McGonagall's had this under control since _I_ got here. Besides that, do you really want to be here when they assign clean up crews?" She asked and Draco laughed.

"Not very Gryffindor like to skip out on the bad in favor of the good." He said and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Not even Harry's Gryffindor _all_ the time. I always considered myself more of a Ravenclaw anyway." Draco held the door open for her, a pleasantly surprised expression on his face, and they made their way to the DADA classroom.

"It's locked." Draco said as he jiggled the door handle and Hermione sighed loudly.

"And you call yourself a pureblood wizard. Maybe all that inbreeding has finally worked its magic. _Alohomora!" _She turned back to him, a clever smile on her lips and Draco rolled his eyes, not entirely unimpressed with her crude wit.

Hermione opened the door and walked inside slightly hunched over as if what they were doing was wrong.

"Why are you acting like a common criminal?" Draco asked and Hermione hushed him. "You _do_ have permission to be in here, don't you?" He hissed and she gave him a deviant smirk.

"Does it matter? We're here now." Draco threw up his hands in frustration as they made their way to Dark's back office. "The door's open…" She said and pushed it open with a quiet nudge. The hinges gave a loud scream and Draco saw Hermione jump.

"Scared?" He whispered from behind her and she shushed him with a sharp gesture of her finger.

Once inside, Hermione did what she was best at; telling people what to do. "You go take care of the boggart, I want to have a look around Miss Dark's office." Draco had agreed only for the simple fact that _he_ did not want to be caught going through a teacher's desk especially one he was already on thin ice with.

Draco walked into the small back room and looked up at the huge, undecorated tree before him. Why and how a boggart could possibly hide in a tree was a complete mystery to him.

Nearing the looming plant Draco pulled his wand out and lifted his sleeves. He was good at this, good enough at least. _Riddikulus… Riddikulus… _There was a scuffling sound behind the tree and Draco raised his wand. A loud pop filled the air and Draco gave a small start.

There was silence and Draco slowly sidestepped around the tree to get at least a look at his adversary. But there was nothing… at first. Looking straight ahead, Draco had missed the small cloaked thing sliding towards him on the floor.

When Draco finally looked down he almost jumped out of his skin. The thing was slowly inching -no creeping- its way towards him. Face down, it slid across the floor, hand after hand reaching out to gain leverage against the smooth surface of the floor.

As it moved closer, Draco heard a low rasping emit from its obviously torn and tattered vocal chords. _It's just a boggart_, he told himself. _It can't harm you._

But that did not make it any less frightening. Then suddenly, the worst happened. There was another loud pop and Draco watched in horror as the boggart took on the physical form of his father. Lucius Malfoy walked towards him, his lip curled in disgust and contempt.

Draco cowered from his father, pointing his wand only half-heartedly in his father's direction. "R- Riddikulus… Riddi- Riddikul…" Draco dropped his wand as the boggart continued and noted the light tapping of wood on cement.

Stumbling backwards, Draco tripped over a box of ornaments and landed hard on his backside. He groaned and started backing away on his hands and his knees. But Lucius was still coming. He was coming to tell Draco what a failure he was, to tell Draco that it was his fault he hit his mother and beat her so badly that she had to spend weeks in the hospital at a time, to tell him what a useless, filthy creature Draco was and how he didn't deserve to live while Lucius was six feet under.

"_Riddikulus… Riddikulus, Riddikulus_!" Draco cried out –even without a wand- while covering his ears. Lucius was shouting at him, screaming, and screaming until Draco thought he could take no more and began to rock back and forth. "Riddikulus…" He sobbed helplessly, trying to shake away the pain and fear the real image and sharp, cold voice of his father.

"Draco, I heard you scream- _Riddikulus!_" Draco looked up as his father's face contorted in disgust before he melted away into a small, dead animal. "Crookshanks…" Hermione whispered but Draco could not concentrate on her nonsense at the moment, he was still huddled in a ball in the corner of the room. Hermione shouted something and the dead animal disappeared. She had no doubt killed the boggart…

"Draco?" He felt her warm hands touch his hair and he involuntarily jerked away from her soft, caring touch. "What happened Draco?" She asked. Draco looked up at her through his teary, gray eyes and opened his mouth to speak, to yell some profanity that would make her stop caring, to make her stop looking at him that way that she looked at everyone…

"I was… I couldn't stop him, Hermione." Draco screeched hysterically. "I couldn't stop him and I wanted to… It's that same feeling when… when he hits her, all over again." Draco hung his head over his knees suddenly ashamed at being so weak. "He was yelling so loud, his voice was so loud…"

"He wasn't screaming, Draco." She soothed, choking back her own tears.

"He was here in this room! I swear it!" He yelled, looking into her eyes that were so warm and comforting. He now wondered what she saw when she looked into his eyes. Were they just cold and lifeless, dead like he felt?

"No, Draco…" She said while leaning forward and her necklace lightly brushed his hand. "It was a boggart. A live projection of your worst fear. A hologram, that's all." She touched his arm and he looked up at her, a bitter feeling forming in the pit of his stomach.

Suddenly Draco reached out and pulled Hermione into a helpless, desperate embrace. It had been a while since he had held someone that cared. "I promised…" He whispered.

"Promised what, Draco?" Hermione asked as she repositioned herself so she could pat him on the back and comfort him properly without causing pain or discomfort to herself.

"I promised her that he would never hit her again. Not while I was still alive." He replied weakly, pulling her closer. "I deserve to die…"

"Draco, Lucius is dead. He can't hurt you anymore. You _or_ your mother." Hermione said, leaning back to look at him.

"But he did, he hit her. I know he did, the boggart had that same look of triumph that _he_ always had." Draco argued.

"That's what you fear most…"

"What did yours turn into?" He asked, while releasing her from his grip and Hermione took a seat next to him.

"I saw Crookshanks dead. He's my cat… He's been missing for almost two months now and I'm worried he's dead…" Draco smiled, wiping the tearstains from his cheeks.

"That's what you fear most? A dead cat?" He asked incredulously and he immediately regretted saying anything at all.

Hermione scoffed and looked away, hurt. "I've had Crookshanks since my third year and… he's so much more than a cat." She said shortly.

After five minutes of silence, Draco stood and held his hand out to her. "We should probably get back." Hermione nodded.

"What time is it?" She asked and Draco reached in his pockets, searching for his wand. Looking desperately around for it, he remembered. He had dropped it when the boggart had been verbally attacking him. "What is it?" She asked and Draco began to panic.

"The boggart took my wand!" He exclaimed and Hermione shook her head.

"It couldn't have-"

"Yes, and that's why it's missing."

"Mr. Malfoy, Miss Granger." Said a dark voice from the doorway and they both froze. "I see you've gotten rid of that nasty boggart," Professor Dark began. "I couldn't get within a foot of the thing before I was too scared to move." She said.

Draco turned to look at her cold expression and saw that she was twirling something long and made of wood between her oddly elongated fingers.

"My wand…" He breathed and Dark smiled.

"_Is_ it yours?" She asked and Draco held out his hand. "Breaking into a teacher's classroom to finish an assignment, eh? What an odd turn of events. I was waiting for you two to break your precious headmaster's mandate but now I think I'll let you both just turn around and leave."

"Why would we have gotten into trouble?" Hermione asked while crossing her arms over her chest angrily.

"You broke into my classroom, my office. Not exactly public property." Alias stated smartly. "But sadly, I think you two are of more use to me here, at Hogwarts, than expelled and on you way to becoming muggles. So, I suppose you should go finish setting up for the dance... you wouldn't want to be late. I'm positive they're assigning clean up groups and I am sure you two do not want to be excluded."

Draco gave the woman a short, disrespectful nod and held out his hand again. "My wand?" His voice was low, menacing.

"Aren't we feeling a little hostile… Maybe you should get your wand back when you're aloud back in my classroom. After all, I have it for pretty much the same reason you're being punished." She said slowly and Draco shook his head.

"What?"

"You're insolent ability to break rules without fear of reprimand." Dark spoke in a low hiss that Draco found more than irritating.

"You do not have the authority to hold another wizard's wand, let alone a student's. I would kindly like to remind you that I have other classes besides yours." He said and Dark shifted the wand to her other hand as if she was waiting for him to jump her or something of the likes.

"We have work, _professor._ If you're going to give him his wand, give him his wand. If not, we're going straight to McGonagall. Either way, we _will_ get the wand and one is no doubt going to be cleaner and less painful for all of us. You just have to guess which one." Hermione said and Draco admired her for her attitude despite their slightly dangerous position.

"Once again, Miss Granger, I think you have forgotten your place on the Hogwarts' chain of command. You're at the bottom, you have no bargaining chip." Dark snapped and Hermione crossed her arms over her chest.

"I truly would beg to differ and we can debate this issue for hours but I think it would be safe for me to assume this will be something we just have to agree to disagree about." Hermione snapped back and Dark tossed Draco his wand.

"Make it four days Miss Granger, four for you as well Mr. Malfoy. Guilty by association." She paused to look at both of them then turned around. "Get out of my classroom and I don't expect to see you back in it until well after vacation is over." Draco and Hermione walked back to the great hall in silence and only after they reached the large doors could Draco say anything.

"I can't believe you said that to her." He said, a half-cocked smirk on his face. "I didn't know you had it in you to be rude to a teacher, especially one you're already on thin ice with."

"Yeah… I'm sorry about your extended punishment. I should have stopped before it got that far." She said and Draco brushed her words off.

"Nah, I don't really fancy her class all that much anyways. I'd much prefer to teach myself that stuff." He replied.

Hermione knocked on the door six times and let out a long, low whistle. The door flew slowly open and they walked in.

Flitwick assigned them both to projects all the way across the great hall and Draco could be caught throwing glances over his shoulder to make sure everything was going all right.

He truly admired how she had handled the whole situation earlier and he realized with a satisfied smile that he hadn't even had to tell her not to mention what happened to anyone on pain of death… He trusted her.

At four thirty they were dismissed to get ready for the ball and Draco threw a kind wave to Hermione as she hurried out of the hall. She would no doubt spend all the time they had left preparing and this thought brought a feeling of anticipation.

He remembered how she had looked at Hogwarts' last ball and, not to sound like a guy, she had shocked him with her seemingly elegant, almost royal appearance. She had probably put so much effort into looking great in order to impress that foreign Quidditch player Krum, though.

But he supposed that that didn't matter anymore. That had been two years ago and they had all changed a bit. This was no doubt going to be a much more adult experience and there would be no spying on Hagrid for his part. He fully intended on enjoying the evening and nothing could ruin that resolution.

Draco checked out at six O'clock (he had not completed his designated hours of volunteer work) and went straight to his dorm in the prefect dormitories.

As he stood next to his armoire it was odd to think that right next door, just out of reach, Hermione was getting dressed as well.

_A mudblood and a snake, a curse with two tongues_… Draco had no idea where the weird prophetic words came from but the second they came to mind he shoved them away without a second thought at all.

There was plenty of time to analyze the foreboding words later. Right now _he_ had to look his best. After all, the look on Weaselby's face would lose its affect if Hermione entered the great hall with a bedraggled Slytherin on her arm and besides that, he wanted Pansy to be jealous. _And_ he felt as though he owed Hermione this much at least…

As Draco readied himself for the dance he hummed quietly to himself one of his favorite songs. Little did he know that everything would change from his one act of kindness.

I'm walking a wire, feels like a thousand ways I could fall 

_To want is to buy but to live is to die, and I can't take it all_

_When everything is said and done I won't have one thing left_

_What happened to everything I've ever known?_

_Cuz' all they gave me was this ticket heaven,_

_but that ticket to heaven, said to lie in the bed that you make_

_Now I'm restless, and I'm running from everything, I'm running from everything _

_I'm afraid it's a little too late_

_When soft voices lie, innocence dies, ain't that a shame?_

_Then all of your dreams and all your money, they don't mean a thing_

_When everything is said and done I won't have one thing left_

_What happened to everything I've ever known?_

_All they gave me was this ticket heaven,_

_But that ticket to heaven, said to lie in the bed that you make_

_Now I'm restless, and I'm running from everything, I'm running from everything _

_I'm afraid it's a little too late_

A/N: (This is ticket to heaven by 3 doors down, I know! It's amazing! I have the greatest selection of music… They are amazing and for my current mood they do wonders. I so recommend their music to anyone that likes rock.)


	16. The Yule Ball Refined

Chapter 16: The Yule Ball Refined

Draco waited silently in the hallway outside of the great hall. No one had yet arrived (not that they were opening the doors yet) but this was where Hermione and him had decided to meet.

There was laughter down the hallway and Draco looked around suspiciously. He was substantially more paranoid at this point in time than he could remember being in a long time. What he was doing tonight would likely change the course of his school life as well as the real thing but it was too late to turn back. This was the point of no return.

Draco smiled. He might as well enjoy it while he was in a controlled environment. There would no doubt be repercussions later on but what fun was it to think about that now?

_Jesus! How long did it take to get ready?_ Draco began to fidget with his cloak's clasp and shifted his weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other. Soon people were going to show up and Draco was slightly apprehensive about how others would receive not only him, but also his date.

Looking up at the large doors, for the first time Draco noticed the large carvings in the magical wood. They were similar to something you would see in a JRR Tolkein story but much more real. Draco reached out a finger to trace the thin and curving letters but was interrupted as he noticed a tap on his shoulder.

"About time Hermione-" Draco paused when he found himself face to face with Pansy Parkinson.

"A Gryffindor, Draco?" She asked slyly and Draco sighed. "Or was it staged, a little plan of yours to make me jealous?" The look of arrogance on her face was maddeningly smug and Draco would have liked nothing more than to wipe it off with the back of his hand. "Or perhaps you really have feelings for her." Draco took a small step forward and Pansy danced away.

"I don't." He said savagely. "We're frien-" He stopped himself but it was too late. Just by saying the root of the word he had sealed the deal.

"Since when does Draco Malfoy make _friends_ of Gryffindor mudbloods, the dirt beneath his feet?" She asked. "A long way you have fallen. The dark lord will not be pleased by your lack of loyalty." She said and Draco's eyes widened. "Oh yes." Pansy whispered, excitingly lifting up her robe's left sleeve to reveal her branded forearm. "I forgot to tell you about the fortunate encounter I had with the dark lord. He has taken me in in a way you could not." She said wistfully. "How lucky I was to have been guided down the right path. All it took was a small nudge from you in the right direction."

Draco felt a sadness so great build within him that he couldn't even look at her. Sure, Pansy was a bitch, but she just wasn't death eater material. She didn't have it in her to be loyal to _anyone _for very long, let alone the dark lord who was abusive, and _that_ would inevitably lead to her death… _Her loss_, he supposed.

"You pity me." She stated and Draco nodded, meeting her cold blue stare. "Why on earth would you waste your pity on someone who has been so lucky?" She questioned and Draco could not find a suitable answer.

"If that is what you think you are." He said quietly and her expression turned from evilly content to angry.

"Don't judge me, Draco. You're no better than me." She spat and Draco slowly shook his head.

"I chose the right thing to do whereas you did not. That makes me not necessarily better, but smarter, that's for sure." He said and Pansy guffawed rather loudly.

"You've really got no idea who you are, do you?" She asked with a smile on her face. "You've already been marked for darkness, Draco. You can brush off as many death eaters as you like but in the end it will only make it harder on you, the dark lord's chosen "prince of darkness". I don't know about _your_ thoughts on the whole issue, but you're not much of a prince."

"Go away, Pansy." Draco said slowly. "Go find Crabbe, or Goyle, or whoever it is today." Draco said, disgusted. She was obviously drunk now that he thought about it, or else she would be kissing his ass as usual.

"Yes, your darkness…" She said with a small bow as she turned and Draco lunged forward, grabbing her roughly by the arm.

"If you _ever_ call me that again, you will wear the imprint of my signet on the side of your face. Do you hear me?" He asked and Pansy spat in his face. Draco pulled away with an exclamation of disgust and pushed her from him.

"You haven't got it in you." Pansy stood and brushed off her dress. "You're not half the man your father was, in fact, you look a lot like the mail carrier. Maybe your mom got tired of getting hit when he fucked her and turned to whoring herself to the less violent types in your neighborhood."

Pansy let out a shrill laugh and Draco began to breathe hard. He felt the anger boiling just beneath the surface of his skin and he felt something like a spring in his arm waiting to be discharged. He wiped the spit from his face and drew himself up tall. He wanted so much to hit her right then but he held back for a reason unknown to him.

Her face went slack and a gleam of triumph filled her eyes. "That's what I thought." She said. "You're weak, always have been weak, and always will be. That's why your father didn't leave you a dime, you know." She stated haughtily as if she knew so much more about his family than he did. "You were such a disappointment to your father that he couldn't stand the thought of anything, let alone the entire family's fortune, fall into your careless and fragile hands."

"Right then." Draco said while clapping his hands together. "You see, I promised myself I would never strike you but I think that there _is_ something I can do that's a lot worse." He finished.

"And what is that?" She asked, a grin on her face.

"Keep doing what I'm doing." He simply put it and she shook her head.

"You do that, Draco. Why would it matter to me whom you're _with_? I know that eventually it will be me, again, and on your way to that point I will just have to make you miserable. Maybe then you'll reach the same conclusion that I have, but faster than you would have without my help."

"You see, there is no way for me to ever reach the same conclusion. You're wrong and I'm not- Hey people are coming now, are you waiting for your date?" Draco was speaking casually even though his pulse was beating dangerously fast.

"Yes, and there he is. Have fun with your mudblood, maybe she'll give you a good ride and… maybe she won't." She said and Draco nodded.

"There _are_ girls who don't put out, Pansy. But I guess you never were the resilient type. Bye." Pansy turned away, pissed, and Draco smiled to himself. _Let her sit on that choice comment for a while…_

The hallway was fast in filling up once people had started to arrive and Draco decided to go inside the great hall and wait for Hermione there. All the prefects had to be inside early anyway and she would no doubt prefer him to exact their plan with great discretion considering.

Draco knocked softly three times and made a hissing sound. The door opened quietly and Draco slipped inside before anyone noticed the door had opened, let alone had admitted a very well dressed Slytherin.

Looking around the large hall, Draco could think of no other word but dazzling. The usually drab interior of the great hall was now smothered in white, blues, reds, purples, yellows, and greens. As if in an effort to combine every house's colors into one large spectacle it did not look like solely a Christmas event, but one that could be held in any season at any time.

The ceiling though, is what caught Draco's breath in his chest. The cavernous ceiling was the very image of a clear night sky that opened straight up into the heavens so it seemed. Stars glittered and fell across the large roof, silent clouds moved overhead in creamy white formations, and a bright moon hung at the very edge of the ceiling waiting for the ball to start. It was an ingenious idea that had been contributed by a Hufflepuff prefect. When the ball began, the moon would begin it's slow cycle across the ceiling and when it reached the other side, the ball would be over.

"You're here." Said the stern voice of McGonagall and Draco turned to face the teacher. "When we let the students in, you may want to speak with your date about your duties. Both you and Granger have greeting duties and you will not be able to join the festivities until those attending have been properly greeted and welcomed into the hall." She said and Draco nodded.

"Shouldn't be a problem." Draco said shortly and McGonagall gave him a suspicious look.

"You _do_ have a date don't you?" She asked skeptically. "You prefects will be opening the dance and… well, it won't send very receptive signals to the rest of your peers if they see their Slytherin prefect dancing alone…"

"No, professor. I _do _have a date. She's a prefect too and we both have door duty together. That's why it shouldn't be a problem." He said and watched in satisfaction as a look of surprise registered on the woman's face. This was one of those rare occasions when McGonagall was actually speechless and Draco wanted to enjoy it down to the last stuttered word.

"It's almost time, where is Miss Granger?" McGonagall finally asked and Draco shrugged.

"Hell if I know." He replied and McGonagall sighed. This was going to be quite the evening…

"Hermione!" Harry yelled up the staircase and Hermione sighed.

"One second you guys! I'm almost ready." She replied while giving herself a final look over in her full size mirror. She wore a long maroon dress that trailed behind her in mingling fabrics of lace and see-through cotton. Its strap, which was gold, hung over one shoulder. Clasped to her left shoulder was a silver brooch with the Gryffindor crest on it that held her long golden dress robes on at the odd angle she was positioning it in.

Giving herself a nod of approval she walked to the door of the girls' dormitory. The only reason she had chosen to dress with the other girls was so that Ron could get one glimpse of what he was missing before the _real_ shocker came to drive the point home. The coupe de grace some would call it.

Walking down the steps she was thrown many glances of approval from the other girls as well as some other, not so female Gryffindors. Ron stood at the base of the stairs trying relentlessly to straighten his tie but it was to no avail.

Hermione watched in bitter satisfaction as his eyes fell upon her and his expression of frustration was altered to a look of shock and… well, jealousy. He knew she had a date and _as last time_ she had refused to reveal this mystery man's name. Could it be another famous Quidditch player from Bulgaria? Ron certainly thought it was possible.

"I've finished." She said and Harry looked up at her, giving her a knowing smile.

"Don't you have to be there early?" He asked and Hermione nodded. "We should get going before Ron wets himself." Harry stood just a few inches taller than her and in many ways he differed from Draco.

Draco was thinner, wiry almost, and well built. As she had held him she could feel the muscles beneath his clothes and he was certainly stronger than his frail frame suggested. Harry was stockier but not overweight. His small frame was also well built due to his dedication to Hogwarts' favorite sport.

Suddenly realizing she was comparing her friend's and her… other friend's physique and she quickly switched gears in her mind.

_What was Draco wearing to the ball?_ Hermione mentally smacked herself and it was obvious by the questioning look that Harry gave her that he smack was less mental than she had hoped.

Once they reached the giant doors Hermione looked around nervously. They had decided to meet outside and by the looks of things it was obvious that she was later than she had wanted to be.

Harry softly nudged her in the side and Hermione looked at her, his green eyes wide with questions. "Is he here?" He asked and Hermione shook her head tentatively.

"He said we'd meet out here but… it seems unlikely with all these people around that he would wait. Maybe I should just go inside and check…" Before Hermione could fix her blunder she realized Harry had a new piece of information to add to the ever-growing puzzle.

"He's a prefect, then?" Harry asked and Hermione shook her head, stopped then nodded.

"Yes, but don't make any assumptions and don't try to get me to tell you. It's hard enough telling myself." Harry looked to Ron who was standing off the side of the great hall's anteroom waiting for Amber.

"Is he still mad at me?" Hermione asked suddenly and Harry shook his head.

"No, tired of being surprised… By the way… what _was_ Draco Malfoy doing in _your_ prefectorial dormitory clad only in a towel?" Harry asked, his eyebrows raised. Hermione let out a quick laugh. This was something that she had not quite gotten to the point where she could laugh about it all.

"Erm… He made a mistake with the doors is all." She replied quickly while looking away. Draco had never really explained the whole issue to her and even if he had, she doubted she had been in much a mood for listening.

"Really… From what Ron tells me, the inside of the bathrooms have the house crests on the doors so 'mistakes' don't happen." This was news to Hermione.

"I dunno then. I really didn't feel like having a conversation with him when he was dressed the way he was." Hermione replied almost sharply. Harry was hinting at something that Hermione didn't like one bit.

"All right, all right, no offense meant by it. You might want to get inside, the dance starts in ten minutes…" Harry's voice trailed off and he reached forward. Hermione back away but he had her necklace in his hands. "Where did you get this and a better question would be what is it?"

"It's a mood stone and I got it… from my… erm… date." Hermione replied looking down. It was a bright shade of green, which unbeknownst to Harry meant she was nervous. Hermione had conveniently forgotten that her emotions were visibly displayed for all to see and quickly grabbed it from Harry.

"Your date must like you a lot to be giving you gifts like that. It looks like it cost a fortune. It goes well with your other necklace." He commented and Hermione knew the wheels in his mind were turning.

"I'll talk with you later." She answered his inquiring look and Harry nodded slowly.

"Make it a promise. Have fun." He said.

"I'll try." She said anxiously. She didn't know how the evening was going to go. Stepping away from Harry, Hermione entered the great hall, scanning everywhere for some hint of where Draco was.

Draco froze when he saw her enter and reacted in a very juvenile way. Turning the other way, he quickly hid behind a well-decorated Christmas tree. **_What_** _the hell?_ He ran a nervous hand through his soft, bleach blonde hair.

She looked great in a completely non-attractive yet sort of illegally attractive way. She was muddled blood dressed up in a nice gown with perfect hair… She was filthy. But then again, he was no longer rich, no long held to the same standards as before. These were dangerous thoughts; dangerous doubts and Draco found himself eagerly surprised.

"Fuck it." He said slowly while taking a deep breath.

Walking out from behind the Christmas tree, Draco looked for her. But now she was gone. "_Shit._" That was ironic, Draco thought bitterly. Draco walked over to where he had been standing before and began sorting menus again. This was the job he had been assigned for prefect pre-ball work.

Someone cleared their throat behind Draco and he turned, slightly irritated. "Could you _possibly_ do that elsewhere?" He asked before he truly saw who it was and he suddenly stumbled backwards in surprise. "Hermione! Wow! You, erm, came out of no where…" He said, his voice taking on an odd fluctuation and suddenly he felt very uncomfortable in his own skin.

"It's pretty, you see. I wore it." She said holding out her necklace for him to look at but he didn't look down for fear of his eyes wandering.

"Yes, I see. I knew it would." He stuttered dumbly while trying to avert her gaze. "We have greeting duty." He said and mentally calmed himself. She probably thought he was having a mental breakdown… Maybe he was. That would explain everything that was happening and chances were that in the morning he would feel nothing for her and this sudden clumsiness would be gone for good.

"I know, I just got through talking to McGonagall. She's seems very excited." Hermione said and Draco realized she was trying to make small talk.

"Yeah, what else do the teachers have to look forward?" He slowly felt the twisting knot in his stomach loosen as he became more comfortable in her very oddly female presence. "You want to help me finish up here?" He asked quietly and she nodded.

"Wow… this is a lot of complicated food." Hermione said slowly and Draco nodded, not quite comprehending why she would make such an observation.

"Yeah, it looks like they really wanted this ball to be remembered." Draco commented dryly in an attempt to keep the silence away.

"I hope the house-elves have plenty of help." She finished and Draco was taken aback. He stopped working and stared at her.

"House-elves… You're worried about house-elves?" He asked with a smirk and Hermione glared.

"They aren't treated the greatest, you know." She said. "And besides, how would you like it if you had to do all this work, you didn't get paid, and you didn't get holiday or sick leave, or any kind of medical or dental plan at all?" Draco shrugged.

"That wouldn't happen, so why worry?" He said with a smirk. "And besides, Hermione, they like what they do. Haven't you been in the kitchens? They practically trample one another to bow at your feet and give you exactly what you want."

"And that makes it okay? They don't know any better than to do your bidding. It's all they've ever known." She said, her eyes taking on an empathetic sparkle that made him feel guilty for seeing things the way he saw them.

"They don't _want_ to know anything else." He said.

"Dobby did." Draco cringed at the name of his old house elf. "Dobby didn't like being treated the way your family treated him."

"There are always weird ones, Hermione. Like you for instance. You're a witch, the first witch in your family, right?' He asked and she nodded. "There you go. There's always a weird one." Hermione smacked his arm playfully and sighed. "Just don't worry too much about it. They're fine, they like what they do, and as Potty kindly pointed out to me the other day, some of them _do_ get paid."

"Oh! The ball's about to start. It's six-forty-five already." Hermione exclaimed before they could carry on their debate. "We should finish this up so that Samuel can put them at the right tables.

Once they finished sorting the menus into the correct stacks they waved Samuel over so that he could put them at the right tables. Hermione and Draco walked silently to the doors and waited for them to be opened.

"You ready for this?" Hermione asked and Draco straightened his neat outfit and picked invisible lint from his vest.

"I was born ready. Besides, who cares if I'm about to do something that completely contradicts my father's teaching? I never much liked him anyway. He was a bit too quick to brandish that cane of his." He saw Hermione brush off his reference to being physically abused with a kind smile and he admired her social skills. She would have made an appropriate arm ornament for any social event his family could hold… if only she were pureblooded…

Hermione saw the look on Draco's face and innately could tell he was thinking of some very unpleasant past experience. From the tight-lipped smile he returned to her she could tell it had something to do with her, more specifically, her blood.

_Two more minutes until everyone knows the truth about Draco Malfoy_, Hermione thought silently, _and two more minutes until her friends knew she had betrayed them._

There were seven loud rings from the clock tower and the doors slowly opened. The crowd outside had been told to form a line outside the door and so they had.

"Good evening, hope you enjoy the ball…" Hermione repeated the line so many times over the next ten minutes that she actually found herself saying, "Good ball, hope you enjoy the good evening."

"I think that's it." Draco said as the last person in the line entered and took their seats. Hermione nodded slowly.

"Yeah, but remember what McGonagall said. Wait an extra five minutes before leaving our post. Even last minutes stragglers-"

"Should be greeted and welcomed." Draco finished and Hermione gave a soft laugh.

"So you _do _listen?" Hermione said in mocked astonishment.

"Yes, but don't tell anyone."

Five minutes later Hermione and Draco took their seats at the prefect table and waited for the headmaster to give his speech. But instead McGonagall strode to the podium looking slightly disheveled and annoyed.

"Good evening Hogwarts students. I will be speaking tonight on behalf of our honored headmaster as he is slightly… under the weather." Hermione noted the slight pause in McGonagall's speech and knew something was amiss. "Tonight, we welcome into the hall of our great school, the well-known band the Killers singing an assortment of songs.

Draco looked across the table at Hermione as he clapped and she opened her eyes wide. "I didn't think non magic people could enter Hogwarts." She said and Draco raised his eyebrows.

"Who ever said they weren't magic?" He asked and Hermione shrugged.

"No one. But no one ever said they were…"

"Exactly." Draco turned his eyes back to the front and Hermione let the shock sink in. The Killers were wizards.

"Graduates of Hogwarts themselves due to an embarrassing misunderstanding, these fine young gentlemen Brandon Flowers, David Keuning, Mark Stoermer, and Ronald Vannucci-" But McGonagall was cut short as four men walked into the large hall unannounced. They walked up to where McGonagall stood and began setting up their equipment.

"Excuse me." One said to her with a winning smile and McGonagall sighed, throwing her hands up in resignation, and walked back to her seat.

"Hello, Hogwarts, Brandon Flowers here to present to you all, my band. Can you all give a warm welcome to us, The Killers?" The man at the front and center of the stage asked with a distinctly American accent and there was warm clapping all through the hall. "As a graduate of McGonagall's strict classes I can say it was best we just walked in and took control, am I right? No grand introductions for old Minerva or she would have been on about us for hours" He asked and there was loud cheering throughout the hall. Hermione was slightly irked at his rudeness towards their teacher but let it go.

"We're going to go ahead and open up this dance with a slow song… Prefects, find your partner and get to it…" The strumming of soft guitar began to flow around the room and eight people stood, seeking out their dates.

Hermione looked at Draco who seemed very unsure. "Come on," She began. "Everyone's waiting, we don't have time for second thoughts." She grabbed his hand and walked him slowly out to the dance floor.

Draco was scared shitless. No second thoughts… He had no idea what the hell he was doing and once they reached the dance floor he just stood there, staring dumbly at Hermione. She rolled her eyes and grabbed his hands. He wanted to resist her, to run away and hide under some table but, with his eyes wide and apprehensive, he let Hermione place his hands on her waist and in turn put hers around his neck.

"This is when you lead." Hermione whispered in his ear and Draco gulped loudly. This was completely out of character for him; he usually jumped at the opportunity to lead, to control.

Straightening his back, Draco stood up proudly and did what he had been taught as a young boy in a noble household.

"You're a good dancer." Hermione said with a smile. "But then again, I'm sure you've gone to many a public function and had to perform well…"

Draco nodded absentmindedly. He was no longer paying attention to the exact footwork, nor even the sound of her voice. Draco was concentrating solely on what he was doing and whom he was with. Hermione, a Gryffindor…

"Coming out of my cage and I've been doing just fine, gotta gotta be down because I want it all. Started out with a kiss how did it end up like this? It was only a kiss, it was only a kiss…" The rhythm flowed through the dance floor, its pulsing beat affecting the overall mood of the room. After the initial dancing had taken place people from all over the hall were standing and joining the ranks on the dance floor.

"You seeing what I'm seeing, Harry?" Asked a surprised Ron and Harry nodded slowly.

"I knew something was up with her lately. I should have guessed who she was going with." Harry said sullenly. "Who better to go with if she wanted to get back at you for going with Amber?"

Hearing her name mentioned Amber tuned into the conversation. "What now?" She asked and Ron shrugged.

"Don't worry about it, Amber." Ron replied distractedly. "You want to dance?" He asked she nodded.

"Yes. Mr. Nice Guy, I love this song." She said and Harry waved goodbye to his friend, he was now left at the table alone, staring at his plate.

"Why so sad, Harry?" Harry looked up to meet the gaze of Ron Weasley's youngest and only female sibling.

"Hey, Ginny." He said. "Where's Collin?" He asked suddenly, looking around for her date.

"He bailed last minute. He said his mum sent him an owl telling him to come home right away." Ginny replied. "He looked really distraught."

"I don't like that he's not here…" Harry said slowly. "It's safer here than anywhere else." Ginny nodded taking the seat across from Harry.

"What do you think Voldemort's doing, Harry?" She asked slowly after a moment of silence but Harry didn't want to think about Voldemort right now.

"I don't care. Whatever he's doing, he's not clueing me in on it and for that I am thankful… Maybe I can finally get a moment's peace." He replied bitterly. He looked down at his plate and Ginny reached across the table, grabbing his hand.

"You know I decided to go with Collin because he asked first, right? He didn't want to go alone and I didn't want him to go home… It's not safe out there anymore, especially since they've been targeting muggle-born wizarding households." Ginny said quietly while giving Harry's hand a slight squeeze, which he returned softly.

"Yeah, I know." He whispered.

"I guess it didn't do any good in the long run, eh?" She stated and Harry gave a short, humorless laugh.

"He's not going to survive holiday break, Ginny." He said sadly and Ginny nodded, tears filling her eyes.

"I know, Harry. I know." Looking at Harry, she lifted his chin until their eyes met. "There was nothing you could do… About Sirius… about Collin and his brother… there was nothing you could do for Dumbledore either… You are not superman, Harry, stop treating yourself as if you are. If you let it, the weight of the world is going to crush you and what good will that do for anyone?" She paused, her eyes glittering with a fire he hadn't seen since the night her father had been tortured by death eaters. "You are the boy who lived and you were spared for more than this, to waste away and die." She finished and Harry nodded, the same feeling of helpless rage and anger coursing through him.

"I should have been able to do something for them, all of them, Ginny. I am the boy who lived and that fact alone _has_ made me superman… I couldn't save Cedric either." He said suddenly. "You know, I still wake from dreams where he screams at me, yells my name, calls for help. I hear his voice crying, begging for mercy, begging for some kind of revenge for his death but I do nothing. I wait, I watch, and I listen… I'm safe when others who should be aren't." Harry paused. "It is me he wants but instead of hitting his target directly Voldemort tortures me by killing those around me…" Ginny squeezed his hand again.

"That is why you need to be strong. You have people who love you, Harry, and until you realize this you will be what you truly think you are… Completely and utterly alone, something you have never been and never will be." She smiled at him through silent tears. "Do not resign yourself to a slow and painful death. Fight, Harry… Fight for us like your mother fought for you."

Hermione leaned into Draco, taking in the masculine scent of him as if it were a flower. She could feel his rigid response but harbored no regrets that she was here doing what she was doing…

"Now, he takes off her dress, now let me go. And I just can't look; it's killing me, and taking control… Jealousy, turning saints into the sea, swimming through sick lullabies, choking on your alibi. But it's just the price I pay, destiny is calling me, open up my eager eyes, cuz' I'm Mr. Brightside." The music faded with a low hum and the dancers all let out a cheer of appreciation to the band, which bowed over-dramatically.

Draco looked at Hermione and she had no idea what to say, an odd event. "So…" Hermione said and Draco shrugged.

Looking past Draco, Hermione's eyes focused on a red-haired figure. It was Ron and he was with Amber, but he was looking at her, glaring as if she had killed her own mother.

"What's wrong?" Draco asked. "I didn't mean to step on your foot if I did." He said quickly and Hermione let out a laugh.

"No, it's just… I think I got the affect I wanted. Ron's pissed." She said and Draco looked over his shoulder. Seeing Ron he smirked, looking quite pleased.

"Good, then. Maybe the Gryffindork will think twice before being a jackass." Draco said arrogantly and Hermione placed her hands on her hips. "What?"

"And you honestly think you have room to speak?" She asked. "Just a month ago, my name as far as you were concerned was either mudblood or Granger. Not exactly the most charming names, either of them." Hermione said and Draco shrugged nonchalantly.

"Well, that's what you were at that point in time, things change. To me, they're still Gryffindorks." He said and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"And what does that make me?" She asked and Draco shrugged slowly, looking away.

"Different… better different- beautiful." He gulped loudly. Had he really said that aloud? From the look on Hermione's face, he had. Her large brown eyes registered with surprise and her lips twitched into what he would assume was an inner smile. Clearing his throat, Draco would have done anything to get away. "Do you want some punch?" Draco asked and Hermione nodded.

"I'll see you at the prefect table then…" She said, turning.

"Right then…" Draco rushed off in the opposite direction and upon reaching the punch table smacked his forehead with violently high force. _What was he thinking?_ This would never work… Despite the small twinge of attraction he felt for his enemy's sidekick nothing would ever come of it inside Hogwarts let alone outside, which no doubt she would expect…

But on the other side of things what did _he_ expect to come of this whole thing. He had known better from the beginning to invest any kind of emotion or attachment to anything not owned or immune from the dark lord. Hermione was not either of those. In fact, she had been targeted in their second year at Hogwarts, had been attacked by the beast from the Chamber of Secrets for her blood.

There had even been a planned attack on her home over summer, but his father had been detained due to the charges many of the death eaters had had to face for the capture and animal like torture they had subjected Arthur Weasley to. Without his fanatic loyalty to the dark lord the other death eaters had bailed. Though he deeply regretted the knowledge of this, it had been planned to be Draco's first attack on a muggle-descendant wizarding home.

Realizing he had in fact come to the punch for a particular reason, Draco filled two small, clear cups with the sparkling metallic liquid and instinctively sniffed it, observing it for any unusual qualities. It smelled and looked normal enough for a magically manufactured drink and he walked to the prefect table where Hermione was waiting, hands folded innocently in her lap.

As he sat down he saw Hermione let out a sigh of relief and she looked at him, a half-smile on her lips. "I didn't think you were coming back." She said slowly and quiet enough so that only he could hear and Draco brushed her comment off like a speck of dust.

"Please," Draco said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I didn't let Weasel ditch you, what makes you think I would stoop that low." But he didn't wait for an answer as he shoved her glass towards her. "Drink up." He said before taking a large drink of his own drink.

She had every reason to believe he hadn't planned on coming back and he hated knowing that. But he had come back. After finishing off the drink Draco waited for Hermione to do the same.

"What's wrong?" He asked, seeing that her eyes were sadly focused across the room where her black-haired friend sat with the younger, female Weasley.

"He looks so old…" Hermione said. "Like the weight of the world is on his shoulders." Hermione said wistfully. "I wonder if that is what he truly believes."

Draco didn't know what to say. He knew he couldn't dismiss her worries just like that. After all, they were merited and they meant something to her even if they meant less to him than she would ever know.

"Do you want to go say hello?" Draco asked, his teeth clenched and Hermione's eyes snapped to his, no doubt to see if he was serious. "Go on, I'll wait here until you get back. Have a dance or two with him, maybe that'll make him smile a bit."

"Thank you… I'll be back. I don't know if he feels much like dancing with me when he has Ginny there with him." She said as she stood. He watched her hesitate in grabbing her purse and then she released it. She was going to trust him with one of her most important possessions and she knew it was a risk considering who he was…

"He'd be crazy not to want to dance with you. Hell, _I_ wanted to dance with you." Draco said with a smile and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Do you want to come over with me and say hello?" Hermione asked on a whim and Draco threw his hands up in the air, a terrified look on his face.

"Whoa… we don't exactly get along, Potter and I. I think you know that." Draco replied and Hermione nodded.

"I just wanted to offer. I don't want you to feel like I'm ditching you for one of my other friends." She said. "I should probably go over there if I plan to, eh?" Draco nodded and watched her walk over to the other table and talk to Potty.

_What could they be talking about?_

"Hey, Harry." Harry looked up from Ginny's eyes and smiled as he saw Hermione approach.

"You really did keep us all guessing till the end, Hermione. Not even Ginny knew, eh?" He asked and Hermione was relieved that he wasn't angry with her.

"I… Didn't want you all to think that I was betraying you…" Hermione said quietly and Harry nodded.

"Not telling us didn't change what you did, you know." Ginny cut in and Hermione could sense that Ginny was a little hostile.

"Ron was being immature and Draco did something that could irreversibly damage everything he has striven to attain here-"

"Draco? This is Draco Malfoy, Hermione! Hello! He's a snake with blue eyes and a nice haircut." Ginny practically shouted. "I can't believe you –of all people- are falling for that stupid façade."

"Oh, so now I'm stupid, am I?" Hermione asked, crossing her arms over her chest defensively.

"No, but you're sure acting the part. He's no good for you… He's no good for anyone." Ginny spoke softly but the words themselves cut like ice on Hermione's flesh.

"I didn't come over here to argue about going to the dance with a Slytherin." Hermione stated bitterly.

"A death eater, don't forget his other title." Ginny interrupted and Harry shook his head.

"He is not a death eater." Hermione replied sharply. "And as I was saying, I'm here with him and there is nothing you can do to go back. Accept it and brighten up…" Hermione silently pleaded with Harry's eyes but he merely shook his head.

"Collin left." Harry said and Hermione felt the air catch in her throat.

"W-why would he do that? I thought he was going with you, Ginny. Why did he leave?" Ginny pulled out the seat next to her and Hermione sat slowly.

"He got an owl from his mum. I read it myself. It seemed legitimate but isn't that Voldemort's specialty?" Ginny asked bitterly. "There was no persuading him to stay. I swear if I-"

"I think it's time for a new order of the phoenix, guys." Harry interrupted. "One that we, as wizards and students, can be involved in." He finished and Ginny sighed.

But Hermione was avidly listening. "Like Dumbledore's Army?" Hermione asked and Harry smirked, giving a small chuckle.

"Yeah… We're a bit wiser now though, eh?" He said, taking a drink of punch that had magically appeared at his side.

"Dobby?" Hermione asked and Harry nodded.

"I've already discussed the possibilities with McGonagall and she says that she cannot openly support our ventures as a student body but that she guarantees that the fifth classroom on the second floor will be empty every Thursday evening from six until twelve." Hermione smiled widely. "Now Hermione, I'm going to need your excellent charm work once again. Same drill as last time but we need to stay one step ahead this time."

"That's going to be hard to do considering." Ginny whispered under her breath and Hermione nudged her sharply in the ribs. "What? Last time we got found out and she _wasn't_ dating the enemy."

"We're not dating. It was merely a… an arrangement of convenience, Ginny!" Hermione practically whisper-shouted. "Now grow up. I'm not going to tell Draco anything but I will give him an opportunity just as you will to your friends." Hermione said and Ginny shrugged.

"Fine, if you want this to last more than a week though, I suggest you forget the Slytherin and recall where your loyalties lie." Ginny snarled and Hermione felt the most distant from her best friend than she had felt in a long while.

"If that is what you think then Ginny, I pity you. I am more loyal to Gryffindor than ever right now and if you refuse to accept a gifted Slytherin into your defense classes than you might as well forget to invite a talented Gryffindor as well." Hermione spoke slowly as if she wanted them to savor ever syllable. "Draco is just as much a victim as you or I-"

"Except he's behind enemy lines!" Ginny shouted and there was silence around them for a moment.

"Be careful Ginny." Harry said. "Keep it down and stop arguing. Honestly, the things you two fight over can be construed as petty…" Hermione and Ginny both threw Harry death glares and he busied himself with folding his napkin into fourths, then eighths, then sixteenths.

"And you don't think that can be used to our advantage?" Hermione asked slyly and Ginny shrugged.

"I suppose… Until he switches sides as soon as things get hard. That's what he does. It was easier to be your enemy when his father was around because you were the epitome of what Lucius hated, which moved the limelight off of Malfoy. Who knows, maybe it'll be easier for him to be Voldemort's enemy next week because, for the moment he wants to be in your good graces. Then the week after that him and Voldemort are drinking tea stop of the ruins of the wizarding world talking about how blue the sky is." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Isn't trust supposed to be a Gryffindor quality?" Hermione asked suddenly and Harry looked up at her. "If you can't trust me, but I can trust a Slytherin, what does that say about the houses?" Hermione asked. "They're bullshit, that's what is says." Hermione stood and set something down on the table. "Harry, if you can give me a list of the entry requirements for your order of the phoenix by Friday I may be able to get as many muddy blooded Gryffindors as I can, though I doubt many will reach your high standards. After all, only Gryffindors and crushes deserve to be taught how to equip themselves against the dark arts… I'm going to go back to my date now, and we're going to have a good time. Hmmm, a Gryffindor and a Slytherin…"

Draco watched Hermione approach, a sullen and not at all inviting expression on her face.

"Let's dance." She said while grabbing his hand. Draco let out a short-lived squeak as she hoisted him up and pulled him onto the dance floor. "I'm ready to have some real fun."

Draco stood in the middle of the floor trying to recognize the beat of the song. He soon recognized it but had no idea how to dance to it. He had been taught classic dances, the kind one would execute at a formal function, not these sporadic, degrading, and weird looking convulsion-like movements today's youth called dancing.

"What are you doing?" Hermione asked and Draco shrugged, his hands falling to his sides in sad indignation.

"I can't dance to _this_…" He said and Hermione smirked.

"Oh yes you can…"

Draco knew he had to of looked like a fool but he didn't care. He was having the time of his life convulsing like an animal in the grips of an epileptic seizure. He was laughing, Hermione was laughing and that was all that mattered at the moment. After giving him a few little tips here and there, Draco had picked up the spontaneous dance moves and incorporated them into what he had been taught since boyhood.

"There you go." Hermione said as they walked back to the prefect table, a smile on her face. "See, dancing can be a fun experience." Draco shook his head slowly.

"_That_ milady, was _not_ dancing." He replied and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Maybe not to your standards, but to mine, that was just fine." Draco reached for his cup, which he realized was empty. Looking across the table, Draco saw that Hermione's glass was also empty now.

"Want me to go and get us some punch?" Draco asked and Hermione nodded, looking at him funny. Then he realized that he must seem like a whole different person to her.

"That would be nice…" She said and Draco gave a short, curt bow and went on his way, two empty glasses clutched in his hands.

Humming along with the music, Draco made his way to the punch table where he ladled the same pinkish metallic liquid into their glasses.

Hermione watched as his figure retreated and saw trouble. Ron and Amber were at the punch table as well…

"Hello Drakikins." Ron hissed in a mean undertone and the Slytherin boiled. "How's your evening been, you great guy you?" He asked. Ron was enjoying watching the conflict pass and burn in his enemy's eyes. "Let me help you with that." Ron reached forward and grabbed Draco's cup. Slowly tipping the small glass of punch all down Draco's front, Ron let out a laugh. The music may not have stopped but everyone's attention turned towards the conflict at the punch table.

"You fucking bastard. This complete outfit cost more than your entire family's ever seen." Draco snarled in a dangerously low tone. Without his normal resistance level Draco lifted his fist and smashed it into the side of Weasel's face. The red head fell backwards over the punch table, spilling the bowls contents all over his date's shoes.

"Ronald!" Amber shouted but Ron wasn't paying her any attention. He was focused on the Slytherin in front of him. The one who had stolen his date.

"You had to prove that you could do it, didn't you?" Ron asked as he stood and rubbed his cheek. "You had to test the limits and now that you've pissed everyone off, none of your little goons are here to fight for you."

"I don't want to fight you Weaselby. For once, I don't want to fight you." Draco said slowly but Ron wasn't going to take no for an answer. His cheek was an angry red and Draco could see the fire behind his eyes.

"Is that what my father said before you tortured him? Is it? Well, Draco, sometimes no doesn't mean a thing. Not a damn thing." Ron released the clasp of his dress robes and handed them to Amber who was looking on in disbelief.

"Why can't you just let me be?" Draco asked and Ron laughed.

"If this is an act for our lady Hermione, she's not watching anymore lover boy. She left when you threw the first punch." Draco turned to the table and before he realized he had fallen for a nasty trick he felt Weasley's fist make painful contact with the fair skin of his own cheek.

Draco reacted on pure instinct that had been drilled into him since childhood. Reaching with desperate hands he grabbed a hold of the rough, abrasive material of Weasel's shirt and pulled. This caught Weasel off guard and he flew forwards, knocking Draco off his feet as well. But Draco had been prepared and braced himself for the fall.

After absorbing the brunt of the fall, Draco stood, brushing off his robes and giving a last look around, walked towards the prefect table. "Sorry about this, Hermione. I'm leaving, I don't have to deal with this shit." He said and grabbed his prefect badge off the table. "See you whenever." He shouted over his shoulder and he began the long walk to the entry doors.

"You fucking coward!" Ron yelled from the ground and Draco looked back. Weasley was on the ground holding his fingers tight over his bleeding nose. "I guess daddy's not here to save you. Go on run like I'm sure you always do. No one needs you here, no one wants you here!"

Draco stopped and pointed at him, brandishing his arm as if it were a wand. He opened his mouth but, looking over at Hermione, the words died on the tip of his tongue. "Whatever you think Weasley. More power to you." He said with a smirk and a mock salute. Taking a bow, Draco left the hall in a flurry of stained robes and silvery blond hair.

"Fucking coward…" Ron whispered as he helped himself to his feet.

"If you really wanted to go with her so bad, why'd you bother even asking me?" Amber suddenly shouted and Ron jumped, startled at the sudden outburst.

"He did it to piss me off." Ron sputtered and Amber crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at him, her dark brown hair flowing over her shoulders in elegant tendrils.

"If you didn't want to go with her then it shouldn't have pissed you off, you were with me." Amber glared at Ron before pushing her handbag back up her arm. "You deserve the broken nose." She said while turning and Ron laughed.

"It's not broken-" Amber spun around and decked him clear on the nose.

"No? Well, I sure hope it is now. Think twice before using a girl as pay back. It will eventually bite you in the ass and I don't think you like that part." She said and turned and walked out of the hall.

Hermione could not even look him in the eyes when she approached. By now everyone had gone back to dancing and Only Harry and Ginny were with Ron.

"You want a go too, then?" Ron asked bitterly while glaring at Hermione.

"As a matter of fact yes, I think I will have a go. At this point I think that you deserve anything you get." Hermione crossed her arms and Ron braced himself.

"Well? Are you going to hit me?" He asked and Hermione laughed, it was almost a giggle.

"I can do so much worse than hit you, Ronald. Why would I waste my revenge on some physical retribution when a well planned and organized one will give me so much more satisfaction?" Hermione smiled and heard Harry give a small laugh.

"So now you're siding with them?" Ron asked and Harry shrugged. "You too Ginny? I see that those blokes who said blood was thicker than water were either drunk or had no family…" Ron comment dryly.

"You're the one who acted like an ass." Ginny said and Hermione smiled. Ginny was back on her side and despite the slightest twinge of anger towards her young friend she was glad to be on the same side again. Ginny made a better ally than a foe, that was for sure.

Hermione looked anxiously towards the doors, knowing that she couldn't leave. At least one of them had to be here and… well, Draco wasn't.

Looking up at the ceiling, Hermione saw that the moon was only half way through the sky. There was still a while to go. Walking back to the prefect table followed by Harry and Ginny, Hermione sat, wondering what Draco was doing…

Draco shuffled the documents around in a mad hurry. He was so angry that he couldn't even think straight. Looking through the documents in sequence he realized something was missing.

Back stepping he found that there was a two-parchment gap between five-hundred-thirty-six and five-hundred-thirty-nine. Looking through the surrounding stacks, Draco checked for the misplaced documents but they were nowhere to be found.

"Damn!" Draco exclaimed. It was odd that only those two documents were missing and as Draco looked through their records he realized that they had been missing the whole time. He had the innate feeling that they were very important and found it odd that they were the only two they had not numbered.

Standing, Draco scratched his head and let out a loud sigh. "Come out come out wherever you are…" _If I were an important document, where would I hide?_ Looking around, Draco's eyes fell upon a very suspiciously lopsided portrait.

As he moved towards the painting, his heart began beating faster. He felt like he was on the edge of a precipice and the only choice of direction he had was up or down, up or down... The documents could be in there, the key to what they were missing, or they could be gone, destroyed years before by the same person that had tampered with them in the first place.

Draco moved aside the painting and found hard brick. Suddenly his heart was in his stomach. In a spurt of anger her knocked the portrait off the wall and let out a howl of frustration. After months of hard work this was where they were at. A dead fricken end! Draco struck the wall and felt a crack beneath his hand. The brick was crumbling.

Hitting it again he felt the rock slide forward a little further. Now using his elbow he managed to make a hole big enough for his hand to fit through. Taking hold of the decaying brick he pulled hard, dislodging even more of the fragile blocks revealing a deep cave in the wall.

Draco ran to the table and grabbed his wand. "_Lumos!"_ He whispered and the end of his wand lit up like a firefly had been impaled on its end. Moving the tip carefully inside, Draco let a silent prayer pass between his lips.

There was parchment inside! Draco hurriedly grasped at it and pulled it from within the bowels of the wall. Looking over it, he read the Latin in his head. This was it! This was the key…

Draco sat down at the table and immediately began decoding and decrypting the hidden message. As he reached the end he realized that everything before this point and everything after suddenly made sense. Draco stood in a hurry and ran out the door forgetting even to put up the security screen around the room.

Hermione rolled her eyes as one of the band members made a pass at her during intermission and almost got up and left. This was turning out to be far worse than she had originally anticipated.

Suddenly the hall doors banged open and Hermione watched Draco rush in, his clothes disheveled an excited look on his face.

Walking straight up to Hermione Draco grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her away from her 'conversation' with Harry and Ginny. "What's going on, Draco?" She asked but Draco was mumbling incoherently as he pulled her out of the hall, up three flights of stairs, and through uncountable corridors to the library.

"The documents were missing… They were right there. The portrait was a decoy and it works! I did it!" He exclaimed as he pushed her through the doorway and walked ahead of her to the table. Grabbing the documents from the table he thrust them into her hands and waited for her to make the same discovery.

"Oh my god, Draco." Hermione whispered. Looking up at him, a wild grin spread across her face. "Is this real? Did you really do this?" She asked and Draco nodded.

"I think it is… This is it." Draco said quietly. She looked more radiant now with her hair disheveled and clothes not perfectly laid across her lap than ever before and he resisted the urge to kiss her.

"You really did it… How? Oh Draco, you did it!" Hermione unexpectedly threw her arms around Draco's neck and leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek. Just at that moment Draco tried to turn away but instead his lips were caught by hers and Draco was plunged into some kind of deeper awareness. His arms instinctively went around her waist and hers found his neck.

Though it was an accidental brush of the lips, it lasted much longer than any accident Draco had ever had and it was certainly much better than any as well… Parting, Draco heard a rustle outside the door and realized his blunder.

"Well, well, well. So, this is the new spot, eh?" Ronald Weasley stepped into the doorway and Draco felt his heart sink and watched in empathy as Hermione's face lit up with dread mingled with euphoria at the events that had just transpired between them…


	17. Nightmares and Comforting Words

(A/N)-Sorry it took so long to update but my muse left me alone for a week. Sorry this is so short but it's just a transition chapter. Hope you like it. Complicated themes cause me great heartache and I am currently bogged down with schoolwork, I have a WASL exam coming up, and I am working on two other fanfictions, one for Dune and one for the Mummy. Well, enjoy…

Chapter 17: Nightmares and Comforting Words

Hermione turned slowly, dread filling her chest that had seconds before, been beating so fast she could have sworn she had just run a mile.

"You don't understand-"

"I sure as hell don't but no matter the excuses you will no doubt make up, what you two were doing could be considered a gross abuse of station." Ron said with a malicious smirk.

"Don't be foolish," Hermione said with a dismissive wave of her shaky hand. "We were working."

"I see. That's why Draco there is wearing a spot of your lip-gloss? Yeah, right there, mate." Hermione blushed and Draco's hand moved instinctively to his lips and he rubbed the sticky, scented, pink mess off of his face.

"You're not supposed to be in here." Draco said in a low voice. He was very aware of his sporting a split lip and a bruised cheek from Weaselby's lowly attack on his person. Draco, felt the blood rise to his face the more he thought about what had happened downstairs and the more he thought, the more he realized he didn't want this to go any further right this second. He wanted time to think.

"Right." Ron said in a disgusted tone. "I'll just be leaving you two alone then." He threw a glare to Hermione and said, "I don't fraternize with traitors," He paused. "Let alone a death eater." He added looking back to Draco, his chin pointedly raised. Ron turned and Hermione, to Draco's surprise and indignation, lunged forward.

"Ron-" She grabbed the sleeve of his robe. She wasn't ready to admit that Ron was doing this because he could. "Ron, wait. You don't get it!" She shouted. "We've worked so hard… I was so excited, it was a mistake!" Draco surprisingly felt a pang of something he recognized as hurt and allowed a frown to twist his darkly handsome features.

"Pretty long mistake, wouldn't you say?" He asked, looking at Draco and Draco smiled. Ron violently pulled his sleeve from Hermione's grasp and walked out of the room, his dress robes trailing behind him like a flag in the wind.

Hermione let her arms fall to her side and looked down at her feet then to Draco, who was just as uncomfortable as she was and a little bitter.

"Draco, I-"

"I should probably be heading to bed. Big day tomorrow, it being Christmas and all." He said quickly and the guilty expression on her face gave him little comfort. "Right, see you whenever."

"Draco-"

"Save it mudblood." He knew his words cut her because she stopped trying to dissuade him and merely stood in helpless disbelief. He was the second friend of hers to walk away that night.

Hermione woke early in the morning. It was the first day back to school and everyone had been buzzing about the disappearance of Collin Creevey all week.

Christmas at Hogwarts had come and passed quickly and now it was back to hard work and plenty of study.

The Saturday after the dance, Hermione had found a stack of papers on her side of the table in the library. She recognized them as the codes their DADA class had made and she assumed they were her exact equal shares in the assignment.

It felt weird that whenever she entered the library room it was either empty or Draco left just as she entered. She took it as a sign he was either pissed at her or he was embarrassed about what had happened on Wednesday. Her own cheeks still burned red whenever she thought of it, what made her think he was exempt from those kind of emotions?

But then again, she wouldn't put it past Draco to be pissed either. And it wasn't like he would tell her what was wrong. That wasn't how Draco functioned.

Whenever they shared a class he sat at the opposite side of the room and whenever they passed eachother in the hallway he looked away, refusing to meet her eyes.

Weeks passed and Hermione slowly got used to being alone in the room. She often just went in there to read and since they had nothing more to do with the documents other than translations she just relaxed and sat in there for hours at a time.

Late on Thursday night, three weeks after the ball, Hermione sat in the room reading her newest book, _Magical Mysteries, A Book for the Muggle-Born Witch or Wizard._

It was very interesting, the things she learned in the book. What she found most interesting though was in the index she had found an entire appendix of pureblooded wizard family trees, Malfoys included.

It seemed that Draco's family could be traced back into when Rome had still been a thriving city-state. It seemed odd to see all of those names in that list and Hermione felt at a loss. Maybe one day she would make her own family tree. Trace her roots back far enough to where it didn't matter who _she_ was.

As Hermione went through the many names in the diagram she had looked many of them up in the reference section of the library and it seemed as though Draco had quite the tradition to uphold.

Only one of the Malfoys on that list was well-known for doing something good and that had been Draco's great great great great great and so on grandfather, Draco the Benevolent. Draco, in 621 BC, published what was thought to be the first comprehensive code of laws in Athens.

But after a while, Hermione had grown tired of reading about the horrible things Draco's ancestors had done to get where they currently were. She was more interested in the changes Draco himself was willing to offer.

_He had called her mudblood_… It had been a while since she had heard that word and she had forgotten the stinging affect it could have on a person. _He had called her mudblood…_

"You deserved it." She snarled, whispering to herself as she set her book down on the table. Rubbing her eyes, she let out a loud yawn.

Suddenly there was a shuffling in the corner and she turned quickly to see what had caused the disturbance.

Nothing. Just empty seats and silence. Hermione's eyes swept over the room once more and when she was satisfied that nothing but her imagination was amiss she grabbed her book from the table and opened it up back to the pureblood appendix. She vaguely smiled, _this is becoming an obsession…_

"The most noble house of Black." Hermione uttered with a sad smile. Sirius' family… But that family had ended with Sirius the year before. Bellatrix Lestrange was hardly to be considered a Black anymore. She was a death eater and death eaters, upon taking their oaths, belonged to _Voldemort's_ "family".

Reading through the list of names, one in particular caught her attention. _Diana…_ She had heard that name somewhere before.

It was like seeing a face on the television and not quite remembering a name. Frustrated, Hermione shrugged and turned back to the actual book part of the book. She was tired of being reminded how odd she was. No direct wizarding blood yet she was better at magic than the pure of the pure. It all just seemed odd.

Hermione's attention snapped around suddenly when she heard a loud groan and then a shout. "No! I won't do it!"

Hermione stood, her heart pounding wildly in her chest. Taking slow steps forward she followed the thrashing and groaning that was so near she could feel the wind it was creating on her face. But she saw nothing…

Reaching forward, her palm open, Hermione grasped at what should have been air. Taking a silk-like material in her hand, she pulled it back to reveal a slumbering Draco.

Hermione could have screamed, she was so shocked, but she held back and let out a sigh of tainted relief. She was glad he was here though she knew she shouldn't have been. It was odd and quite clever that he had used two chairs pushed together as a kind of makeshift couch and she wondered why she hadn't noticed the weird formation.

Hermione looked at him. His eyes were moving fast beneath his eyelids and she wondered what he was dreaming about, wondered if he had lately thought of the kiss they had shared. After all, she did.

Seeing a strand of silvery blond hair hanging over his eyes, she reached forward to push it aside.

Abruptly he sat straight up, grabbing her arm. Hermione started, which pushed her backwards and onto her lower back painfully quick. His eyelids opened, revealing their grayish blue color, as he shouted, "Not the mark!"

"Draco?" She asked fearfully and Draco looked down at her. She saw an expression of relief flit over his features before they returned to the normal stony demeanor of Draco Malfoy, _son_ of a death eater. He released her arm.

"What are you doing, Granger?" He hissed, his voice fluctuating slightly. "Trying to give a sleeping man a heart attack?" Hermione smiled slightly, embarrassed that she had disturbed him. Then she remembered the flowing, silvery material that was currently covering the other half of his body.

"How often do you do this?" Hermione asked.

"Do what?" He asked dumbly and Hermione stood, placing her hands on her hips defiantly.

"Come in here and wear that cloak so no one can see you." Hermione replied angrily. "That's a nasty trick." She said.

"Wasn't a trick." He replied shortly while rubbing his eyes. "I find that it's easier to sleep when someone's around and I don't have a dorm full of sleeping bodies to go to." He opened his mouth wide and stretched while yawning. "It just so happened that I knew you spent most of, if not all of your time in here either reading, singing, or you know, doing your job." He said slowly, his eyes looking down.

"Why don't you sleep in the Slytherin dorms?" Hermione inquired interestedly.

"Nightma- I dunno, it's nicer up here." He interrupted himself. "Nice and toasty, don't you agree?"

He obviously didn't want to talk about his reasons and Hermione decided to skirt the subject but not entirely abandon it. "Why haven't you been talking to me lately? It's obvious you're up here, why don't you help me or at least acknowledge that we're in the same room together?" Draco shrugged. "If it's about the Yule-"

"It's not, so don't get all awkward on me. Since we took care of that boggart I've been having the same dream." Draco said slowly, changing the subject quickly… too quickly… He closed his eyes as if trying to remember the dream. "I'm in my father's arms and he is taking me towards the dark lord. They intend to brand me, make me a death eater, but not a normal one. They have something special planned for me." Draco paused and Hermione urged him to continue. "I must be a baby because in the dream, I am completely helpless. And then there's this girl. She's got my hair… and my eyes and I miss her so much I can actually _feel_ it." He said, choking on his words.

"Who is she?" Hermione asked. "Is she a girlfriend?" Draco shook his head and Hermione felt oddly relieved. "Why would they want to brand you when you were a baby?"

"I dunno… some kind of early bondage thing. I can't tell. My mother taught me how to analyze dreams but none of it makes any sense at all. According to my analysis I am a girl trapped in a male's body and I feel the need to be controlled and herded like an animal. The colors mean I am happy and, over all, I'm really a kindly person." Hermione cringed. "Not me?" He asked with a smile and she shook her head.

"Maybe it's not a normal dream. Maybe it's a memory." Hermione offered and Draco shook his head.

"Look." He lifted his sleeve and held his forearm out towards her. "I have no mark." He saw her eyes lingering on the scars along his veins in distinct cutting patterns and quickly withdrew his arm. "I don't have a mark. That rules out it being a memory of that sort."

"What about the girl? Could she be a memory? Do you have a sister?" Draco shook his head.

"My mom said I used to have a friend from Germany. She and I were supposedly close until her mum got a job in Russia as a head of the Magical Malady Department in the Russian Ministry of Magic…" Draco paused, thinking. "I don't remember much about this girl other than the fact she spoke really bad German, the same way I did when I was just learning it…"

"Your mom could have lied." Hermione said and this seemed to open a whole new realm of possibilities for Draco.

"Why would she though?" He asked and Hermione shrugged. "I know that my mum used to tell me stories about life before the dark lord. About my father before he came under almost complete control of the Voldemort but… She never told me why they hated each other." He added. "I don't know why I'm telling you all this." He said suddenly with something resembling a chuckle and turned, ready to go to the table and read, maybe do some work.

"Then don't." She said shortly and Draco shook his head.

"No-" He said quickly. "I don't mind talking to you about it, it just seems odd that I want to is all."

"Why odd?" She asked.

"You can figure that out." Hermione rolled her eyes and sighed loudly. She was obviously one of those girls who liked to "communicate".

Who else have you talked about this with?" Hermione asked and Draco bit his lip, recalling the few conversations he had had recently.

"No one lately. I used to talk to Snape a lot. He was more of a father to me than my own. But very recently I discovered something about our potions master that has made me rethink my decision to share the most intimate details of my life." He said slowly.

"He's a death eater." Hermione said with a smile as she took a chair from the table and set it in front of Draco's makeshift couch.

"How did you know?" Draco asked in disbelief. She and her little friends were obviously more informed than anyone who worked for his father could have ever guessed.

"When one is close friends with Harry Potter, you are bound to know more than the average student." She said, vaguely answering his question.

"How long have you known then?" He asked and Hermione shrugged.

"Since fourth year, when Voldemort came back. He and Karkaroff." She replied. She wanted to tell him that Snape really wasn't a death eater but an agent for the Order of the Phoenix. She wanted to tell him that he could still trust their potions master, but due to Draco's unusually close ties to Voldemort she knew it would be a risk that she was not yet willing to take. It would endanger everything that the OoTP had worked so hard and so long to establish.

But for just a second, as she looked into his cold gray eyes, she thought it would have been worth it to wash the sad, tired look from his face. He had no one to confide in anymore, but for now, she would have to be good enough. She had to know that she could trust him and not come to regret it before she started sharing any deep, life-long secrets.

"The nightmares, if that is what they are, will pass, Draco." Hermione soothed and Draco nodded. "But that doesn't mean you can just wear an invisibility cloak and go hiding places where people think they are alone." She added with a slight smile and he laughed. "So, you want to tell me how bad of a singer I am?" Hermione asked and Draco shook his head.

"You're not bad, if that's what you mean. You might want to choose a better selection of songs, country isn't my type of music." He replied and Hermione shrugged.

"Oh, not mine either." She said quickly. "It just so happened that that day Ginny was enjoying her lovely country music while we were studying."

"The Weasley likes country?" He asked. "I never took that family as the type to listen to cowboy crap, but you can't really judge by blood." He finished and Hermione shook her head.

"No, you can't." She said. "But I guess that doesn't keep people from doing it." She said sadly.

"You mean people like me?" He asked said angrily. "Well, Miss Granger, though you will no doubt deny it, you do in fact judge me for my blood. You automatically assume that whatever I do that may seem unsavory is because of my high station in pureblooded society. Well, I tell you, everything I do is of my own volition."

"That's rich, you seemed to like using your father and the way you were raised as an excuse _before_, why should I or anyone else believe otherwise?" Draco smiled.

"I've been honest with you so far."

"With scant detail and little of it was gained without slight or great coercion. Doesn't count. You must take the initiative to form bonds yourself and without reason. That is what trusting someone is all about, Draco. And you, my friend, have not proven yourself trustworthy." Draco nodded.

"Then why do you trust me?" Hermione paused, opening her mouth to speak. "So you do?"

"Let's not make a grand spectacle of it. I am sure you trust me in many ways that, prior to our late camaraderie, seemed quite impossible."

"It did bother me." Draco said, suddenly interrupting their volley of words and quipping comments.

"What did?" Hermione asked, confused,

"What happened after the dance." Hermione's chest tightened as she thought of it. _Yes…_

"What about it?" Hermione inquired calmly. She wasn't about to let on that what they had shared was still on her mind.

"What happened between you and Wease-Weasley." He paused, ready to let the weight fall.

Hermione's heart skipped a beat in disappointment. Of course… it was about Ron. "I lost one of my closest friends. Can you not understand why I would wish things to remain how they were? Ron has changed since what happened to his father and you are not completely innocent of the whole deal. Even if you weren't there, your father was and Ron cannot forgive as I do." Hermione said. "I know a different side of you than either Ron or Harry do. I know that you are not a death eater but would you allow me to tell them that?" Draco shook his head. "And why is that?" She asked, knowing the answer.

"It gives me power." Draco replied hoarsely and Hermione nodded.

"Exactly. It gives you power, but in order for anything to go well for you, you have to be able to relinquish some of that power." She said. "And until you do… you'll find yourself utterly alone."

"But I'm not utterly alone." He whispered.

"But you are…" Hermione sighed. "Until you can let go of some of your control you will not trust and without trust you will find yourself empty and alone." Draco nodded slowly, letting her words sink in.

"I do trust you." He looked at her, his gray eyes searching for comforting words or thoughts. "I wouldn't have told you all this if I didn't."

"Yes, you would have, Draco. Stop lying!" Draco jumped. "Do you even realize when you're doing it anymore or is it just a natural thing?"

"What the hell are you talking about? I sit hear doing what you tell me to do, spilling my guts to you and you're yelling at me!" Draco shouted. "I don't know what you want from me! You've seen me cry, you've seen me drunk, you've seen me caught in the throws of a romantic kiss."

"That's all fine and great, Draco, but seeing those things means nothing to me if you doubt me and you do, Draco, you do doubt me. And that's okay… Just stop lying." She said quietly. "Stop lying because someday I am going to believe you and you're going to let me down…" The last part she refused to let pass through her lips, though she knew it made her a hypocrite.

"Whatever. You sit here and confuse yourself." Draco snapped and he stood, wrapping his invisibility cloak around him.

"Draco… where are you-" Hermione felt a draft of wind and the door to the small room slammed shut, blowing out the candles she had lit along the wall hours earlier. Hermione sighed loudly. Now she was confusing herself.


	18. Freaky Friday

Yet another transition chapter and this one is way short but it gets to the point. The next chapter shouldn't take long since I've already written it out. I just need to lengthen and revise it. Enjoy… Oh, and whoever "boom-shaka-laka" is, I appreciate the joke review. Anyone who wants a prime example of what a review is _not _for look at the last review I have received.

Chapter 18: Freaky Fridays

Draco had woken angry, was angry all day, and he was hell bent on going to bed angry. But, as sometimes consciences do, Draco's decided he would actually think everything through rationally before being pissy for a time period greater than twelve hours.

Draco stood at the window of his dorm and stared out over the grounds. It was just turning dark and the last remnants of the overly nice day were fading from the sky. Through some rather unscrupulous actions, Draco had obtained a very small cache of alcohol and he was loath to waste it all in one go as he had last time. So the golden liquid sat glittering in the corner, barely touched, calling his name.

Taking a swig from the single bottle in his hand, Draco groaned loudly. This whole growing up thing was much more difficult than Lucius had ever said it would be. His father had never said anything about girls that made your heart beat so fast you could have sworn you were running. Lucius had never even mentioned the fact that sometimes the wrong decisions were made easy for a reason and the right ones were hard for another. But, the most disappointing thing that Draco's father had forgotten to inform Draco about was even the possibility of this aching pain that he was constantly feeling. It was an odd pang here or there right above his stomach and it was strange to think something so unrelated to the physical human body could cause such physical discomfort.

But, among other things Draco had learned from his father first and foremost Lucius had taught him how to drink enough so that it didn't matter if one was in pain or not.

"Stupid Granger and… and her bushy brown hair!" He shouted at the wall, slightly slurring his words together. He may not have been drunk but he wasn't sober. "The funny thing of it is that I, being of pure blood and all that nonsense, have less to my name than she does." He whispered, taking a large drink and finishing the bottle. His urge for self-control was ebbing and the more he looked at the small mountain of alcohol the more inviting it seemed to grow.

"Fuck it." He said loudly while taking a step towards the beer. "I'll be damned if I bought it just to stare at it all night." He said to himself. "Might as well enjoy myself a little."

Suddenly there was a soft tap on his door and Draco froze. _Damn it!_ Grabbing a single bottle from the small stack, Draco threw a cloak over the rest and walked to the door.

"What?" He asked, inclining his head forward a bit to hear through the door better as he twisted the top roughly from the bottle.

"Erm… It's me, Hermione." She said and he could sense the discomfort in her voice despite his currently dulled senses.

"And?" He questioned stupidly while putting the freshly opened bottle to his lips, eager for the taste of England's finest.

"I wanted to speak with you about the documents." His heart gave an involuntary lurch at her reply and he sighed. He really needed to get a girl…

"All right then." Reaching forward, Draco undid the lock single-handedly and reached for the doorknob. As he turned the brass sphere he felt the weight of someone leaning against the door but before he could press the door back a safe position he felt gravity take it's toll.

Hermione let out a short scream as she tumbled through the doorway and fell against Draco. Hitting the floor with a soft thud, Draco felt the bottle slip from his hand and cringed as he heard the glass shatter against some other unknown hard object.

"Damn it!" He said while giving Hermione a slight nudge off of him. "What the hell were you doing, your ear pressed against my door like that? You're fucking nosy, you know that?" But Hermione was laughing hysterically despite Draco's anger.

Upon seeing that Draco thought the situation was less than hilariously funny, she quickly hushed and took up her uncomfortable attitude once again.

"You spilt my beer." He said bitterly and Hermione stood.

"I'm sure you have more." She spat. "Boy, you are a pathetic wizard if I ever saw one. I would repair it myself but, as a prefect, I do not wish to undermine Hogwarts rules by helping you drink yourself into an early grave." She paused thoughtfully. "You know, like I said the last time we went through this whole 'I'm an alcoholic and I will drink whenever I damn well please' situation I will once again state that alcohol is only a temporary means of escaping one's problems."

"Ah, know it all Granger here to save the rich drunken fool once again. If you make a habit of this, I'll have to have you killed." He said this as a joke but Hermione didn't seem to find it too funny. "So serious, just a minute ago you wanted to laugh it up. Go on. Laugh at me!" He shouted. "Laugh at the pathetic, rich, prefect-" But before Draco could say another word Hermione's hand had made sharp contact with his left cheek.

"Stop pitying yourself, Draco. You don't make much of a martyr." She commented dryly.

"Can you explain something to me?" He asked and Hermione helped him stand. Despite the way he was treating her, he was her friend and as of late she had felt quite compelled to be there for this troubled Slytherin. He was in rough waters and this she knew could be a difficult thing for any teenager but it was so much worse for someone unused to such trivial matters as human emotion and thought.

"What?" She asked, sitting him on the edge of his bed. Taking the seat from his study table, Hermione dragged it over to sit in front of his bed, shut the door, and sat down.

"Why is it that before we were 'friends' when I looked at you I felt this great angry sickness but now… Now that we have been 'friends' when I look at you I think about things… such different things, things I never even considered. I… I know that I saw you before but… well, now I _see_ you." He said slowly and Hermione looked short on words.

"You're not yourself, Draco. Perhaps we could talk later when you're a bit more sober and a lot angrier as you were. I think you've had a little too much, friend." Hermione stated kindly but Draco shook his head.

"I've only had two beers today." A look of surprise crossed her face but soon it was masked by tinted cheeks and irregular, nervous actions that he had come to notice of Hermione. "Now are you going to answer my question or just stare at me like I'm a nutter?" He asked.

"I don't know what to say…" Hermione trailed off, looking away.

"Say you feel it too, tell me that I'm not insane." He pleaded and she deliberately looked him in the eyes, her brown irises staring through him with their innocence.

"You can't truly expect me to have something to say straight off, it's not fair." Draco scoffed loudly.

"Fuck what's fair, Granger, Do you think it's fair that I have this unexplainable knot in my stomach constantly whenever you're around. Do you think it's fair that even now, after my father left me nothing, I can never even consider you as anything other than a lesser species?" He asked, his eyes narrowed in anger. The alcohol had certainly freed his tongue and he was saying things he hadn't even thought about before this moment.

"It's a passing thing, Draco." She said, ignoring his comment about not getting a dime from his father. "It's your subconscious mind telling you that girls and boys cannot have any kind of a platonic relationship and what you're feeling is a reaction to that." She explained while looking at her hands. "This is merely a passing thing. Even I have had instances where I think that I like Harry or even though I know we are just friends… It's unnatural for males and females to feel anything other than attraction with each other and that leads to confusion…" Or that's what she was hoping.

"It's more than my subconscious or I would be capable of dispelling you from my thoughts completely. My father was not a stupid man and he taught me well. If you had not wheedled your way into the most intimate sector of my conscious and subconscious self I would not be speaking to you now and you would still be my enemy as was naturally expected of the both of us." Draco said coolly.

"Well, then why ask me?" Hermione said suddenly. Her cheeks had grown hot and she felt shaky. Looking at him made her weak in the knees and thinking about their lips touching did even more.

"I wanted to know if you felt anything… But, you have answered my question." Draco waved her out and Hermione stood. Draco mimicked her action and saw her to the door where she stood uncomfortably.

"Are you angry?" Hermione asked quietly. "With me?"

"Why do you ask?" He asked, leaning against the door frame, relaxed.

"Because I miss you." She whispered.

"And what is it you miss?" He stepped forward slightly and Hermione took a small, barely noticeable step back while pointedly looking away.

"Your negative insight, the way you hate everything despite its uses to you." Hermione replied.

"I don't hate _everything_ per say." Draco said wistfully. "Just things I don't understand and things that don't understand me."

"You hate me then?" She asked. Their words had reached a point of bantering and at this point they both knew it was flirting.

"No… I think I have come to a very unique understanding of you Miss. Granger and you, I think, have come to understand me quite well." He said slowly.

"You reek of alcohol, Draco." She said and Draco let out a chuckle.

"And you expected less?" Hermione smiled, finally able to look him in the eyes, losing herself as she had once before.

"No, I actually expected much more." She said.

"You don't like it when I drink." He stated blandly and Hermione sighed.

"I don't like it when anyone drinks, you should know this." Hermione replied caustically.

"Right… I won't drink anymore." Hermione guffawed. "Unrealistic goal?" He asked with a smile and Hermione nodded. "Okay… I won't drink _around_ you?" She nodded.

"That's a good goal."

"Will it get me another kiss?" He asked. The smiles faded from their lips as they were shocked from their previously half-serious state and Draco cleared his throat. "Well," He began uncomfortably as he took a safe step away from Hermione. "I should be getting some sleep, I'll have to think of a clever way of disposing of the evidence you have created."

"_Scourgefy_!" Hermione said and the beer bottle as well as its contents that were all over the floor disappeared in a flash of purplish light. "Not creative at all." Hermione said as she opened the door.

"We're all right then?" Draco asked and Hermione paused.

"I wasn't the one who was angry, Draco." She said and Draco nodded.

"We're okay." He said after her and Hermione shut the door behind her a content smile that Draco did not see, on her lips.


	19. The Unforgivable Curse

Do you guys like the shorter chapters? Let me know. Well, here it is

Chapter 19: The Unforgivable Curse

Draco watched in mild satisfaction as Hermione once again let Alias have it. He vaguely heard the words they spoke to one another but it didn't matter the specifics. Once again, Alias had deserved it.

"You wretched girl, get out! Get out! Get out!" Dark shouted and Hermione packed her stuff away quietly, a smile on her face.

"My pleasure." Hermione said shortly as she hoisted her bag over her shoulder and headed to the door.

"Mr. Goyle, make sure Miss Granger makes it to McGonagall's office in a timely fashion." Dark said and Draco watched in terror as Goyle rose and packed his own bag.

"I'll go." Draco said quickly and Alias smiled as if she knew what he was up to.

"Sorry, but I do believe Mr. Goyle is a little less… _invested_ in Miss. Granger. Your judgment often seems clouded when in the presence of the girl whereas _his_ judgment is nearly nonexistent." Dark replied and Draco held back the urge to start a new yelling match between himself and Alias.

Draco knew why Dark had sent Goyle and the truth of it sent his insides writhing with apprehension. No doubt Goyle would do his job but not without a great many incidents that would, no doubt, cause a fair amount of pain for Hermione along the way.

"May I use the bathroom?" Draco asked and Alias sighed, glaring in his direction as if she wished to catch fire to his head.

"I'm not stupid, Mr. Malfoy. You _will_ be staying put until this class is dismissed and if I hear as much as another peep out of you until then, I will have your skin as a window drape!" Dark shouted like a madwoman, clenching her fists and many people around the room gasped. Giving a false chuckle, Alias clapped her hands together and faced the front where her lesson board was pulled out. "A little joke to loosen the tension. Just the trick, eh?" She growled with a twisted smile on her face that was obviously forced.

Draco watched as Goyle left the classroom and all he could do was hope Hermione ran fast.

Turning back to his parchment Draco resumed taking notes and when the bell finally rang he shoved everything hurriedly into his bag and ran out the door.

As he rushed out of the classroom the toe of Draco's shoe caught on something and falling forward, Draco curled away from the floor to brace himself for the impact. His back hit the floor with a tremendous amount of force and Draco felt his breath wrenched from his body as he gasped in pain.

"Shit," He muttered while he got to his knees. Looking back he noticed a small crowd around the entrance to Alias Dark's classroom. Standing, Draco pushed his way through the gathering of gawking students until he found the source of their awe.

Gregory Goyle lay on the stone floor. His flesh was pale and his eyes glassed over in death.

Suddenly there was screaming and shouting and Draco watched in slow motion as everything went to chaos. First years and seventh years alike were running about, madly trying to find out what this meant, but Draco knew. There was a student at Hogwarts who had used the unforgivable curse on another student… Voldemort's war had spilled into the hallway of one of the safest places in the wizarding world, which meant there was no safe place anymore.

Through the screaming and shouting one thought crossed Draco's mind. Hermione… she had been out of class when this happened.

"Get to your dormitories, students. Prefects! Prefects, this way!" Shouted the two loud voices of the head boy and head girl. "Get out of the hallway! Prefects, follow me!"

It was then that Draco made a dangerous decision. He knew that he couldn't wait to know if she was okay, he had to know then. He didn't think he could take finding out she was dead by waiting in the prefect lounge. The foreboding feeling he got from his dreams returned, filling his stomach with lead.

Walking away from the yelling of the head boy and head girl, Draco made his way through the great hall full of running fleeing, frightened students to the main staircase, deserted and threatening.

Everything about walking up this staircase felt wrong to Draco, but he knew he had to make it to McGonagall's office, just to know if she had made it there.

"Malfoy! What in hell's name are you doing?" Asked a cold voice from the base of the steps.

"I need to find Granger." Draco said, turning to face his potion's master.

"You need to do what you have been told to do, Malfoy, and you need to do it right now. You are putting more lives in danger than just yours and mine." Snape motioned for Draco to come with him but Draco shook his head.

"I don't follow death eaters any longer!" He shouted and sprinted up the staircase. He could hear that Snape was following him, but he didn't care. Running through corridor after corridor he found not one sign of Hermione but instead of relief, Draco felt more desperate.

"Malfoy, you're making a stupid mistake!" Snape called after Draco, a corridor behind. "I know where she is, she's safe!"

Draco stopped in his tracks, bent over leaning on his knees and allowed himself to pant. "Where… is… she?" He asked in between great gulping breaths. He heard Snape approaching quickly by the tap tap tap of his teacher's perfectly shined boots across the floor of stone.

"She is with Dumbledore you stupid boy!" Snape said, he was breathing almost as hard as Draco was and Draco sighed, sliding to the floor.

"Did she-"

"Of course not. She wasn't even near the classroom when it happened." Snape said following suit. "You should be worried about your dead housemate and what his death means for you, Draco, not some Gryffindor who holds not even one known ancestor to her name." Snape spat suddenly.

"And what exactly does Goyle's death mean for me?" Draco asked. He wanted to be nowhere near the death eater but did not have the energy to move away, only to glare and hate.

"Your father's rank is not enough to protect you from Voldemort's blind wrath." Snape replied knowingly and Draco shrugged.

"It wasn't Voldemort who killed Goyle, Professor." Draco said shortly and Snape gave a small chuckle.

"That is my point, boy." Snape said with a bitter smile forming on his sallow, gloomily set face. "There is one among you who does not fear the wrath of any other but his lord." Snape growled. "You need to be cautious with the image of where your loyalties lie whether it _is_ with your Slytherins or with your _Gryffindor_." He spat Gryffindor like it was a swearword and Draco recoiled. "It must appear as though you are the son of a death eater. Things _must_ appear as they always have even if that means reestablishing some of your more distasteful ties among your house."

"Coming from you, this advice seems somewhat ironic." Draco said quietly. "But, I trust your words for they are common sense and I have need for something strong and concrete."

"Nothing is concrete, Malfoy. Being a part of your father's house I would have expected you to have learned this long ago." Snape said while getting to his feet. "Now, the prefects are all meeting in the kitchens. Go there and do not speak of Miss Granger, she is a suspect currently."

"You don't act like a death eater." Draco said suddenly and Snape laughed, a low mirthless laugh that chilled Draco and made him doubt the truth of his words.

"Things change, Mr. Malfoy, and alliances shift constantly. Thus is the dance of politics and life alike." Snape held out his hand and Draco reached for it. "You should know it, but Granger is not your only resource. You can come to me any time you wish and Dumbledore is also available to those who need him." Snape hoisted Draco to his feet and motioned for Draco to follow him. "There will be a meeting held in the great hall this night and there will be danger to you… Protect yourself." Snape sped up and Draco did not bother speeding his own gate.

He slowly retraced his steps back down the stairs and only after he had wandered aimlessly for ten minutes did he realize he had no idea where the kitchens were.

"Shit!" Draco exclaimed as he ran a shaky hand through his soft, silvery hair. "Where the fu-"

"Mr. Malfoy, what a surprise to see you out wandering the halls when you, as a prefect, are supposed to be in the kitchens receiving instructions." Said the slippery voice of Alias Dark.

"Aren't the teachers supposed to be in a meeting of their own?" Draco asked, his voice filled with malice he had formerly kept in check when in the presence of his DADA professor.

"That is none of your concern." She said slowly and Draco nodded, not turning his head an inch.

"Where're the kitchens?" Draco asked with a sigh of frustration.

"Down that corridor, the painting of fruit… tickle the pear." She whispered in his ear and Draco leapt away. She had been some distance away when she had first spoken and in just seconds she had approached him, posing a threat to his person.

"Right, I should be going." He said.

"Yes… the best idea you've had in a while, Draco." Dark hissed and Draco backed slowly away.

Her purple eyes glittered in malice as he walked away, unable to turn his back on her. "Fear me." She mouthed and Draco turned away, running full speed down the corridor.

Stopping in front of a painting of a bowl of fruit Draco looked at it. "Tickle the fucking pear? Fucking ridiculous!" He cursed. "Only Dumbledore and only at Hogwarts." Draco muttered indignantly. Reaching up, Draco felt stupid but tickled the pair. Letting out a giggle the pear turned into a doorknob and Draco twisted it, entering the kitchens quietly.

"Malfoy, where have you been?" Asked the sixth year Hufflepuff known as Albert Knockterth.

"Shove it and mind your own fucking business, knocktooth." Said Draco. "I got a bit… _Lost_." He explained in a dark tone. "Where's Timothy?" Draco asked, inquiring after the new fifth year prefect.

"We thought you two were in hiding together." Said a Ravenclaw in the corner and Draco threw the girl a mean, vicious glare that made her cower. He was back. "What were we supposed to think?" She asked.

"Slytherins don't kill Slytherins." Draco replied. "Now, what're you all doing?" Draco asked.

Albert shrugged. "They told us to come here and think of a game plan. We haven't had any bursts of inspiration and considering most of us don't know what the hell happened, it's quite impossible to expect anything useful."

"Stop whining and use your brain. Has anybody got any useful tidbits of information?" Draco asked and saw Weasley slowly raise his hand. "What, Weasel?"

"Goyle was killed by the Adavra Kadavra curse…" Weaselby muttered and Draco smiled.

"That's preposterous, Weasley. Everyone knows that the Adavra Kadavra curse is one of the unforgivable cur-"

"It's true, I saw his body." Draco interrupted. "Now we just have to think of how to weed out the culprit."

"So is he-who-must-not-be-named here at Hogwarts?" Asked a fifth year Gryffindor.

"Don't be dense. It was a student, there's no other possibility." Weasley said and Draco nodded.

"Yes, it was a student. But how to find out which student… That is the real problem here, eh?" Draco asked, a playful smile on his lips.

"Not really. I figure the questioning wouldn't have to go further than this room." Weasley commented dryly. "More specifically beyond you, Malfoy. You may think acting useful will fool us but we see through you like a piece of saran wrap."

"Interesting simile. You're clever, I'll give you that. Question me as you will, you'll find that my hands are as clean of this as they always have been." Draco replied jauntily. "I was thinking we could suggest to the higher ups that during the meeting that is to be held in the great hall this evening we all have our wands put under the scrutiny of the reverse spell." Draco offered and there were murmurs of hesitant agreement around the room.

"Priori incantatem." Someone uttered and Draco clapped loudly.

"Yes, at least some of us have learned _something_ here in all these years. Yes, Priori incantatem should be adequate enough to weed out the culprit. You can't avoid it and you can't hide what you've done with your wand." Draco said excitedly. "This spell will tell of the last spells performed with it, thus betraying its owner."

"Doesn't that damage the wand?" Asked the Ravenclaw and Draco shrugged.

"Dead wand, dead human… Which is more important?" He asked. "And even if it does cause damage, it's got to be minimal or else the ministry wouldn't use it and there would be a lot of unhappy and wandless wizards out there, which there aren't."

"I agree." Said a Hufflepuff Draco didn't recognize and there were murmurs of agreement.

"So that's it. We have our game plan." Draco said. "What're we supposed to do now?"

"Wait." The Hufflepuff said and Draco sighed. Draco hated waiting… He wondered what Granger was doing.

Suddenly the door to the kitchens burst open and Snape stood in the doorway. "All students are to report to the great hall. Prefects, you need to sit separate from your houses and we _need ideas_."

"Priori incantatem." Draco replied shortly as he pushed Snape aside and began the walk to the great hall. With a pang of worry he hoped that Granger would meet them for the meeting. This wasn't something, for her image's sake, she should miss…

Sitting at a table to the far right and front of the teacher's table, Draco looked out over the mass of students that had fearfully and quickly gathered. They were all awaiting information that had, before now, been denied them.

Despite Draco's prayers that Hermione would show, she did not and this worried him further. Not many knew about the convenient coincident but those who did eagerly expected Hermione to come and take claim to her innocence and if she didn't show up at all she obviously wasn't innocent.

Standing, Draco felt hands on his shoulders. "Sit down, Mr. Malfoy." Said McGonagall's voice. "She'll be along shortly." The woman said and Draco did sit down but not because of what McGonagall said but because just in that instant he saw Hermione walk through the doors in the great hall.

Draco immediately noticed her tousled, windblown appearance and deducted that a walk from Hogsmeade in mid winter could do that so he allowed the tense muscles of his shoulders to loosen.

"I can't believe this." She said quietly as she sat down next to Draco in the seat that he had taken great care to assure it remained empty.

"What exactly about it is unbelievable? It was all bound to happen, I don't know why we are all as surprised as we are…" He said darkly and Hermione's lip quivered.

"One of your housemates is dead, Draco." She said quietly, her voice filled with slight scorn. "Someone in this school used the unforgivable curse to kill him and you are acting as nonchalant as if a distant aunt on your mother's side has died… The war is here in Hogwarts." She said and Draco sighed.

"And I knew it would be, just as you did. The war was already here, Hermione but before it was conducted outside the walls. How many of your house have gone missing or have been killed in the past two years?" He asked and Hermione looked down as she thought.

"Four."

"Four Gryffindors, two Slytherins, two Ravenclaws, and one Hufflepuff in the past two years. Odd isn't it, that before Potter saw Voldemort rise that there were no murders, no students that went missing, no students that were caught in bands of death eaters torturing a muggle family?" He asked and Hermione nodded. "He's back, and he's playing the same game. We have to be smarter though, stronger."

Hermione nodded. "I'm glad you're on our side this time." She said slowly and Draco shrugged her comment easily off.

"I've never been on anybody's side besides my own, don't expect that to change." He said coolly and Hermione's attention was drawn to the front of the room where their fake headmaster now stood motioning for silence.

"Today is a grave day at Hogwarts-" Suddenly, with a great gust of wind, the doors to the great hall opened and there stood Dumbledore in his long blue robes looking out at them over his half-moon spectacles. The vision, to them all, seemed unreal in its epic appearance.

"No need, Kromeen. No need anymore. I am back." Dumbledore said finally and there were boos amongst a hall full of cheers. Draco felt his fears lessen as the wizened man walked to the front and took their headmaster's place.

"Today is a grave day for Hogwarts and I will not sugar-coat any of it for you. There has been a murder in our halls this day, something that has never before happened, and the person who has committed this murder will be punished to the full extent of law, of age or not." The old man said slowly in his serious voice that they rarely heard. "Before beginning the test you shall all undertake I would like to first take a moment to remember the dead, Gregory Goyle. A moment of silence and a shout for him, please."

A moment passed and Dumbledore let out a shout, saying Goyle's name. Few followed suit.

"Now that those who wish to respect him have had their chance we shall begin the test that cannot fail. The first thought that came to mind for our task was a drought of Veritaserum but then I realized the substance could easily be manipulated." Dumbledore said and many people let out sighs of relief.

"But, there is another thing we may do, one that cannot be falsified and one that is irreversible in its projections." Dumbledore paused and still there was silence. "There are four hundred thirty seven of you in this room and I expect that before you all go back to your dorms tonight there will be four hundred forty seven wands in a neat pile at your head of house's table." Murmurs of worry echoed through the hall and Draco smirked.

"Priori incantatem!" Draco shouted aloud and Dumbledore turned to give Draco a look of pride.

"Yes, all of your wands will be cast under the priori incantatem spell and this will reveal who has done one of the unforgivable curses." Dumbledore cast a weary glance around the room and sighed. "Please do not struggle, I tire of strife. Take this time to step forward and give your head of house your wand. They will mark your name and account for the presence of your wand. That is all." Dumbledore stumbled back into his seat and watched as everything took place.

Draco and Hermione stood in unison and pulled their wands from their robes without hesitation whereas others around them paused uncertainly.

"Do it!" Hermione said. "Do what he says. Unless you have something to hide from Dumbledore you should not hesitate." Draco nodded and walked to Snape's table where he set his wand down proudly.

"Yes… Mr. Malfoy. Thank you, go take your seat and wait to be dismissed." Snape said coolly and Draco did as he was told, for once not putting up a fight. Back at their table he met Hermione.

"You're right." He said sullenly as they sat and Hermione smiled.

"What is it I'm right about this time?" She asked playfully though her eyes betrayed her weariness.

"I haven't tried very hard to be trusted." He replied stormily as a bitter smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"I knew I was right about that." Hermione said seriously and Draco nodded. "Are you going back to the prefect dormitories or are you going to tough it out with your brethren in this time of... _grief_?"

"I can't sleep in the Slytherin dorms." He said adamantly and Hermione turned a questioning glance towards him.

"Why not?"

"Because… the person that killed Goyle will be there and that puts _my_ life in danger." Draco said without the slightest touch of fear in his voice.

"How do you know it was a Slytherin?" Hermione asked.

"Believe me, you know your housemates handiwork." Draco said with a slightly proud smirk and to answer her surprised expression he said, "Like I've said many a time before, Hermione, we know what each and every housemate is capable of. For us, suspicion is the code of honor and if one fails to observe this, one ends up either dead or with an awful curse on him every time he turns around."

"That's terrible. It doesn't even sound like a house." Hermione exclaimed. "It sounds like a bunch of snakes thrown into a cage."

"Now you're getting it." Draco said with a smile. "So now you know why I like to avoid baring my neck for every person that passes with a knife in their hand?" Draco asked and Hermione nodded.

"That still doesn-"

"We're being dismissed, Hermione." Draco interrupted and she turned around to see everyone standing. "You should probably hurry, you're not exactly _the_ most wanted person tonight but you're pretty damn close."

"What do you mean? They don't think I-" She stopped as she saw Draco nod and she hurried to the door. "I'll see you later then?"

"Maybe…"

They opened the doors to the great hall and Hermione was shoved through the doorway by the mass crowd behind her. They were all tired and wanted some relief from all this strangeness going on around them. Draco rose from his seat and followed near the back of the crowd.

Head lowered, Draco made his way slowly to the stairway that led to the upper corridors. Upon reaching the top stair, Draco heard an odd sound coming from the corridor that led to the prefect dormitories. It sounded like shouting and Draco sped up.

Suddenly Draco turned the corner and what he saw and heard couldn't have been more shocking…


	20. The Stairs and the Deadly Mistake

Chapter 20: The Stairs and the Deadly Mistake

"She killed him! The Gryffindor slut did it!" Shouted a female at the foot of the stairs. Her hood was pulled over her head so Draco could not recognize the one who spoke but the slippery and malicious tone in her voice was familiar.

Draco ran forward and was lost among a sea of Slytherins. Hermione was on the last stair of the staircase that led to the astronomy tower and she had her hands on her hips and the look on her face told him that she was ready to tell them all of. She obviously found the situation less serious than it was. Draco could tell from the heated way the Slytherins all around him whispered and hissed at one another that this was a very serious matter. They were threatening Hermione and she didn't even see the threat.

"I'll have you know-" Draco watched as her expression suddenly changed from blatant outrage to a strange look of confusion mingled with fear. If Draco wondered what was happening, his question was answered only a second later as the staircase became fully separated from the wall. The force of the movement caused Hermione to lose her footing before she could jump safely to the other side and Draco watched in a dreamlike state as she dangled by one hand from the railing.

There was silence for a moment before, to Draco's horror, cheers rose and words of such violence and hatred were uttered that Draco could hear the electricity pulse through the air around him.

Draco saw Hermione attempt slowing her breathing to restore calm but this tactic failed miserably and he saw the signs of wild panic on the lines of her soft delicate features.

Her eyes wide, Hermione turned to the crowd of Slytherins that were watching and pleaded pathetically for help. Draco felt a strange stirring in his stomach that he knew as empathy but found himself unable to make the decision to step forward and help.

"_Help, help…_ Crying isn't going to get you anywhere _princess._ We're here to avenge the death of a Slytherin and Slytherins don't back down when you bat your lashes." Now Draco knew the voice.

"So, Pansy, I see you're at it again." Draco called and the hooded girl at the front turned, meeting Draco's cold glare with one of her own.

"Come to watch, eh?" She asked with a smirk. "No? Sorry Draco, but the Gryffindor girlfriend has to go. She's become quite the annoyance for us."

"For _you_? _You_ don't have to work with the girl for hour upon hour in an enclosed space that reeks of mudblood." Draco's words ignited a flame in Hermione's eyes and he knew they had done their work, worked their magic. "I've been waiting for a chance to do this myself but her Gryffindorks are always around her."

"Really… This was a chance meeting, actually, though it would have been a grand idea." Pansy said and Draco nodded. In the back of his mind he heard Hermione whimper as her palm became sweaty and began to lose traction.

Looking on, Draco watched and he could read what was going on behind her eyes like she was a book. She feared her hand would slip and upon trying to grasp the rail with her other hand she loosened her steady grip more quickly.

Her voice was quiet now, as if she feared that any noise at all would be the last straw. "Please." She whispered fearfully.

"Pathetic, isn't it?" Pansy asked Draco and his eyes were locked on Hermione. He risked exposing himself to Pansy if he moved to help her but if he didn't help Hermione he would be responsible for the death of a friend, the death of someone he realized he liked as more than just a friend.

This thought process seemed to bring Draco to life. "Move!" he shouted as he parted the crowd of spectator Slytherins that seemed to be enjoying the scene. "Get out of my way!" He pushed past Crabbe and then Pansy.

Draco reached the edge of the platform and looked ahead. The staircase was a little more than six feet from him and he looked for a secondary solution to the one he had in mind but found none.

Pansy grabbed the sleeve of his robe and yanked him back away from the edge. "How dare you!" She shouted. "You're not a Slytherin at all. Can't even stomach a little muggle torture." She said with an outraged expression on her face.

"She's not a muggle." He said. "And even if she was one, she'd probably be able to do better magic than you." He said, ripping his sleeve from her grasp.

"If you do this, think what you will be losing." Pansy hissed in a low, dangerous tone.

"And what would that be?"

"Your friends, your pride, your purpose." She said.

"Actually, by doing this thing I think I'd be gaining those things back." He said, turning back to face the problem at hand.

_Here goes_, he thought and there were gasps and outbursts of anger as he launched himself into the air using full leg power. He reached his arms out in front of him and barely caught the railing opposite to Hermione (it had begun to rotate). Draco gained leverage on the stone and slowly inched his way to the front of the stairs where there was no railing.

His energy began to wane and he found himself breathing heavily. Draco could see Hermione and a new jet of exhilaration burst forth from his veins. Her lips were moving in silent prayer as she held on as tightly as she could. He reached the front and tried to gain footing but with a pang of foreboding he misplaced his foot and slipped.

There were loud cat-callings and gasps as he almost released his grip but to his, and everyone else's surprise, he found his footing once again. He decided that he was done tempting fate and pulled himself up with a heave and a groan of exertion taking a moment to gain his breath.

Angry shouts could be heard but he paid them no attention. His focus was on how he was going to save Hermione's life. She hadn't even realized someone was trying to save her yet and the look on her face said that she had resigned herself to whatever fate awaited her.

Draco saw her flex her hand to renew the grip and she screamed as her hand slipped a little more. It was time for action. He reached his hand out towards her and bent forward onto his knees. "Hermione, Take my hand."

Hermione snapped to attention and, without hesitation, reached for his hand. Just as Draco was able to wrap his hand around Hermione's the staircase began to shift upward. Suddenly, as Hermione's grip was lost, Draco was hit with the full force of her weight, which flung him forwards forcing one knee over the edge. Now all that separated Hermione from the darkness below was Draco, whose silvery platinum hair framed his face that was unusually pale.

Draco held on tight, using all of his strength while making sure to keep his grip on the railing as well as Hermione's hand as long as he could manage. But panicking, Hermione began to struggle and Draco groaned while he tried to hold her steady. "Hermione, Hermione, don't struggle." He said but she paid no heed. "I _will not_ let you fall."

Hermione went still, looking upward at her rescuer she nodded fearfully. "It's all right." He said through gritted teeth. "Just hold on."

By now teachers were lined up on the platform below and Draco realized just how close they were to the new platform. It was only feet away from crushing Hermione's small body into the stone wall behind them. This made him want to be somewhere else. What if he failed to save her and he watched as the walls moved in…

Looking down once again, Draco saw that the group of Slytherins was now completely silent. He assumed it wasn't just because of the presence of the teachers. No, he knew they were watching in anticipation for him to falter.

Draco tried as hard as he could to keep his footing and he slowly began to pull her upwards. _Failure is not an option_.

Draco let out a groan as he tugged a final time and pulled Hermione onto the stairs with him. Both of them falling over, Draco held Hermione close to him for she was finally letting that panic affect her.

"I could of died…" She said shakily. "It was so close…" She lips quivered and tears began to spill from her eyes. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." She said as she grasped his shirt and pushed her head against his sturdy chest.

Wrapping his tired arms around her, Draco tucked her head under his chin and sighed. "You really have to pay attention." He said, a hint of banter in his voice and Hermione pulled away and slapped his arm.

"And you just standing there having a casual vulgar conversation with another girl! I should have known you were trouble." She said shaking her head and wiping her tears away.

"I could say the same thing for you. Snape's going to kill me, you know." He said with a groan. "Shit, shit, shit… What am I going to do?"

"Stand up for yourself. What could they possibly d-"

"Miss Parkinson, you were supposed to relinquish your wand to Professor Snape!" Said professor Flitwick and his voice suggested that he had had enough of whatever was going on at Hogwarts.

"I'm going to kill him, the filthy little bastard. He's a traitor to his family and he's a traitor to his house." Pansy shouted and Draco stood, looking over the railing. He ducked just as a jet of blue light flew towards him and he reached into his pockets, realizing Snape had his wand.

"Miss Parkinson, put the wand down-"

"Avada Kadavra!" She shouted and Draco saw the spell make contact with the rail spoke right next to Hermione's head. "I should kill them both, the filthy mudblood _and_ the traitor! Avada Kadavra!"

Draco pushed Hermione away from the edge and she let out a short scream as the spell missed her head by inches passing so close that the little hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.

"I killed that stupid git Goyle for less, Draco! He told me not to kill you though… He might get angry…" As if rethinking her rash decision Pansy let her wand arm drop to her side and Draco braved a look over the railing again.

"Come on, Hermione." Draco said, taking her by the arm. "We've got to get down there. She's going to try to get away."

"How do you kno-"

"I _know_ her, Hermione now shut up and hurry!" Draco shouted. "Half the school's wandless and she's going to get away."

"Though I doubt even Pansy's that stupid, even if she _does_ try to get away, I'm sure the teachers can handle it, Draco. Some of them have hundreds of years of experience…" Hermione reassured as she hurried down the corridor side by side with the boy that had saved her life.

Running down a flight of stairs, Draco took the lead and now he could guiltlessly jump ahead by sprinting. Reaching the platform Draco almost sprinted right into Dumbledore who was calmly talking with Pansy.

"Back off you old fool. Let me by or I'll blow half your staff including yourself to hell." Pansy shrieked. "I've already killed for him and you can bet your life that I'll do it again."

"He's manipulated you-"

"Why does everything have to be manipulation with you aurors?" Pansy spat, a disgusted look on her face.

"Because," Dumbledore began. "That is what Voldemort does. He lies and fabricates. What were you offered to be his creature in my school?"

"His countenance and nothing less, not that it's any of your business." She said. Suddenly Pansy smiled, a wicked smiled and turned her eyes to Draco. "He knows what it's like to be in the dark lord's favor but he threw it away. I won't make that mistake." She whispered. "And despite what you think old man, you poor old fool, every creature of Voldemort has a way out in _your_ school." She spat.

Dropping the wand, Pansy sprinted to the side and ran full speed down the side corridor that no one had bothered to guard. Making a split second decision Draco pushed Dumbledore aside and jolted after her. His legs may have been short but he was fast and in shape.

"Mr. Malfoy, don't!" Shouted the sullen voice of Snape.

"She gets away and we're all in danger." Draco shouted over his shoulder. Turning his attention to the task at hand, Draco paced himself. Though he could still see Pansy it seemed as though she knew more about the school than even he did. Or maybe she was just frantic, she didn't know where she would end up. But, remembering her words, Draco doubted it.

"Shit." Draco said as Pansy turned a corner, putting on a sudden burst of speed to lose him there. Draco, though his lungs screamed for oxygen matched her stride for stride and eventually she was close enough to grab. Reaching out with an unsteady hand, Draco grabbed the arm of her cloak and bowled them both over.

Pansy had expected this and rolled herself to let her shoulder absorb the force of the fall. Hitting the floor with a loud crack, Draco let out a loud curse. There was no doubt about it, his arm was broken. Pansy stood, brushing off her cloak, and stared down at him a look of near loathing twisting her almost attractive appearance. But suddenly her face was lacking its beauty that he had seen before. She had lost any semblance of youth these past months.

"Now you'll know what it's like to disappoint _your_ master." She said with a smile.

"Not before I strangle you with my bare hands." Draco growled through clenched teeth.

"Have you ever heard the phrase 'twisting someone's arm,' Draco?" Pansy asked with a grin.

"I'm not afraid of you. The only advantage you have at the moment is the fact that you're standing." Draco grimaced as Pansy sat on her haunches beside him, reached forward and applied pressure to his injured arm.

"You might want to have mudblood kiss it better before you go strangling people, Draco." There was the sound of muffled steps and shouts down the corridor and Pansy looked up and over like a deer caught in headlights. "I'll have to leave you here." Pansy said as if there had been another option. "But I will be back, I can guarantee that. You'll be hearing a lot about Pansy Parkinson."

"Hopefully it's your obituary." Pansy smiled with a chuckle and stood.

"You're the one who made a deadly mistake." She said with a smile. "Little does your headmaster know there's a backdoor to _every_ castle." And then Pansy was off, running towards the tapestry on the far wall. Giving Draco a short wave and a salute she disappeared beneath the fold of the tapestry.

After she was gone Draco realized how badly his arm hurt. There was a tingling sensation in his fingertips and as he tried to move he felt a heaviness on his mind. Blackness was only a blink away.

"Mr. Malfoy?" Draco heard it but he didn't see it. "Mr. Malfoy…" Draco closed his eyes and gave into the sweet black of unconsciousness.

Draco woke, a distant, groggy feeling to his head. He felt as if he had forgotten something… something important. "The tapestry!" He shouted, opening his eyes as he sat up. "The tapestry, she used the tapestry."

"Mr. Malfoy, please lean back lest you lose me my privilege of sitting with you for a bit." Said the soft and airy voice of their headmaster.

"Headmaster, she used the tapestry to get away. She said something about a back door." He said frantically trying to rise.

"We looked in every possible place and I assure you, there _is no_ trace of Miss Parkinson, Mr. Malfoy, now do as I say and lean back before I pour some tranquilizer potion down your throat myself." Dumbledore said and he wasn't joking. Gone was the light undertone in this man's voice.

"How did she get a wand?" Draco asked, taking his defeat quite gracefully considering.

"There was one wand we did not consider when we made our headcount." Dumbledore said slowly.

"Goyle's." Draco said and Dumbledore nodded.

"Mr. Goyle's…"

"Where's Hermione?" Draco asked suddenly and Dumbledore let out a soft laugh that sounded all too familiar for the Slytherin's comfort.

"She's sleeping." He said pointing a finger towards a chair in the corner where Hermione sat, head leaned against the backing her eyes closed in deep sleep. He saw that someone had placed a blanket over her and she seemed content enough. Draco made to get up but Dumbledore pushed him back down. "She should stay that way for another hour or so as should you. You're arm was broken in two places and it was a rough night for you last night-"

"Night? I spent the night in the hospital wing?" Draco asked, his mouth falling open in shock.

"Yes and Madame Pomfrey said you thrashed around quite a bit. She's convinced you'll need to stay another night just to be sure you're all right." Dumbledore said with a smile.

"I'm not staying here for another night. In fact, I'm quite convinced I am fine and should be getting up now." Draco sat up and began shoving the comforter aside.

Dumbledore held up a small bottle and lightly shook its contents to remind Draco of his former threat. "It's either you stay in bed of your own volition or you stay in bed of my volition…" He said slowly and Draco let out a loud angry sigh as he heaved himself back into a comfortable position. "There you go now, good man, good man-" Dumbledore began to cough and Draco flinched as the old man turned away, hacking deeper and deeper until Madam Pomfrey came in and took him by the arm.

"It's about time you let me give you an examination headmaster." Said the woman and Dumbledore waved her away.

"Woman, I am fine. Just a bit of a chest cold." Dumbledore insisted and Draco saw a stirring in the chair out of the corner of his eye. "Leave me be or I'll come in here every afternoon and visit all your patients." He threatened with a laugh.

"For goodness sakes, what is it going to take for me to convince you chest colds don't last for weeks and weeks and weeks?" She asked after him and Dumbledore walked to the door.

"There will be another time for this conversation, Poppy but right now you have two charges who are very awake and coherent. You may want to fix that." Madam Pomfrey let out a sigh and placed her hands on her hips.

"Go one then. If they are going to sleep you will have to be gone. Go one, go on." Dumbledore laughed heartily as he was forced out of his own hospital wing and when Madam Pomfrey came by his bedside Draco smiled sweetly up at her.

Yawning he said, "I don't think I'll need any more sleeping drought, thank you." But she shook her head and measure out the proper dose.

"No you don't. That Potter's pulled that twice this year. Saying he's going to sleep all on his own and then I come back in and he's gone, no where to be found." She said, handing him the cup. "There'll be none of that nonsense from you, Mr. Malfoy. I rarely see you in here for genuine purposes so enjoy and drink up. At least you won't have to be going to school for the next few days."

"Yeah, because that's what I'm worried about." He growled and she motioned him to stop talking and drink the drought. "Fine, fine, get off my back already." He downed the nasty, vile drink and looked up at her, a grimace on his face.

"Not bad, eh? Has the hint of strawberries, I always thought." She said while she moved on to Hermione in the corner.

"Yeah, the kind that are fermenting…" He whispered. He looked to his right, throwing a glance at Hermione who was kindly refusing to take the drought. But before he could even focus on her familiar face he felt the drought going to work.

His mind grew heavy again and his ability to hold his head weakened until he gave up trying and just looked to the ceiling. But every time he blinked he saw her until finally, as it worked its way diligently through his bloodstream he closed his eyes and let sleep drift over him.

_He knew it to be the dead of night but he heard his name being called over and over again. Getting up from his bed, Draco moved to the window and looked out over the grounds, looking for the source of the anguished screams._

"_Draco!" It called again and Draco turned to the door. Twisting the doorknob, he realized it must be locked. But the voice was just outside the door. Did no one else hear it? "Draco, please!" Draco pushed his palms over his ears in an attempt to block the screaming. It was going to wake Hermione._

_Walking to the corner Draco lifted the blue blanket only to find that Hermione was no longer there. "Draco!" It shouted and Draco felt his heart stop. He knew that voice almost as well as he knew this dream. _

"_Hermione!" He shouted but there was no answer. Running back to the door he wiggled the knob frantically. "Hermione! Open the door, it's locked from the inside!" He shouted but she just kept screaming and screaming in agony. "Hermione! Open the fucking door!" He yelled at the top of his lungs._

"_Draco!"_

"_Stop it! I can't help you unless you open the door!" The screaming went on for what seemed like hours before it suddenly stopped._

_Apparently Draco had fallen to his knees and standing, Draco pressed his ear against the door. "Hermione?" He whispered. Grabbing the knob once again he tried to twist it except this time it opened with a loud click._

_Searching for his wand, he realized yet again that Snape had it and he was defenseless. Walking down the corridor slowly, Draco made his way to the stairs. _

_Peering over the railing he saw a long shadow sprint from the corner to the front door where it slipped out through a small crack in the door. With a pang of fear Draco realized the shadow was leading him._

_Stepping slowly down each stair, Draco made a great effort to keep his other senses alert. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears and he tried to calm himself. It seemed so loud that he was sure whatever was stalking him could hear it._

_Draco opened the door with a loud creak and stepped through the opening. He was now on the outside and it was surprisingly warm outside. The stars hovered menacingly above him and the grass seemed to harbor a danger that Draco could only sense not see._

_With a prayer of resolve, Draco stepped forward onto the grass and found it stable enough to trust. Seeing the shadow swim through the grass ahead, Draco trudged on, his eyes suspiciously roaming every shadow, every movement. But the night was surprisingly still…_

_As Draco followed the shadow he saw that they were nearing the forbidden forest. He knew what awaited him there… death. Death was in the forest but he could not stray from the path. He had to keep going because the shadow knew where Hermione was and Draco needed to find Hermione._

_Entering the thick of the forest Draco found himself plunged into darkness. There was now movement all around him. There were also noises, strange noises and voices that were calling his name, dragging him further into their midst._

"_Hermione?" Draco uttered quietly and suddenly there was an uproar._

"_You have to go Draco. Nothing but death awaits you here." Said Hermione's soft voice and Draco turned to find himself face to face with her. But she was glowing, transparent, a shade of what she used to be. "Go, he'll be here soon and you don't want to meet him." She said._

"_Come back with me, Dumbledore can fix this… " Draco's voice trailed off as Hermione shook her head slowly._

"_Not even a wizard can bring the dead back to life, Draco. Now, go. You haven't much time." Draco nodded then shook his head. _

"_I'm not leaving you here… It's not safe." He said._

"_I'm dead… They can't hurt me anymore, Draco" Draco nodded again and turned. _

_He was suddenly face to face with the same creature he always met here. But this time, because Hermione was behind him, he could see its face. The large red eyes and crystal teeth. And then it struck him as it always did and he was helpless to prevent the onslaught of teeth and venom._

"Draco…" Said a soft voice. "Draco, wake up. Madam says we can leave now." Draco felt the lightest pressure on his chest and opened his eyes a minuscule amount just so he could see who was waking him.

Sitting up, Draco looked into Hermione's chocolate brown eyes and sighed a sigh of the utmost relief.

"You're beautiful." He said slowly then he pushed aside the comforter and stood. Grabbing his cloak from the rack by the door Draco placed it over his shoulder and left, not looking back to see the look of shock on Hermione's face.


	21. Odd Ponderings of a Wayward Gryffindor

(forgive me, the tests are NEWT's not owls...) I made a mistake so sorry! So when your read OWL's think NEWT's

Chapter 21: Odd Ponderings of a Wayward Gryffindor

Hermione entered her History of Magic class with much more than Guinivere the witch-queen and Merlin the wizard on her mind and as she sat in her normal seat, she waited contentedly for the warning bell to ring. Maybe with a little education going on she would be able to think clearly.

Two seconds before the final bell rang she noticed Ron and Harry enter the room. As if searching for an answer, Harry stopped in front of Hermione and turned his eyes down at her. Nodding with a weak smile, Hermione scooted to the end of the table so that Harry and Ron could seat themselves.

"Are you and Ron ready to be on speaking terms?" Harry asked in a mock- frustrated voice with a sigh. "He's driving me crazy with all this, 'I saw Hermione today, she looked okay,' crap already."

"I haven't said that once!" Ron protested, his ears turning red. "Geez, someone mentions someone else's healthy skin tone and you'll never hear the end of it." Ron mumbled with a brooding look.

"Well?" Harry asked.

"Is he going to be civil?" Hermione asked.

"I'm not your go-between. Ask him yourself." Harry muttered darkly while he pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill to take notes with.

"Ron, are you going to be civil?" She asked and Ron guffawed.

"I'm not the one fraternizing with the enemy." Ron said and Hermione sighed.

"So all Slytherins are our enemies?" She asked and Ron nodded enthusiastically as he pulled his textbook from his bag.

"Yep, that just about sums everything up-"

"Shoot!" Hermione exclaimed as she rummaged through her bag. "I must have forgotten my book…" She said and when she looked up, both Ron and Harry were gaping, open-mouthed at her.

"Can it be!" Ron gasped, feigning a heart attack.

Hermione sighed and Harry let a touch of concern find its way into his words. "You forgot your quill too? What's up with you lately, Hermione. I've never seen you so scatterbrained." Harry commented with a worried expression.

"You can use one of mine, Hermione." Ron said quickly and Hermione brushed him off with a gesture.

"That's not important-"

"Not important?" Ron asked. "Harry, I think this one's under the imperius curse, I do." Ron said with a smile but Harry didn't smile back. "Right… so, what's the matter with you?" Ron inquired.

"I have a lot on my mind is all…" Hermione said and the first thought that popped into her head was a platinum blond Slytherin.

"Like what?"

"I take it Dumbledore's been doing damage control, eh? None of you have heard about Pansy?" Hermione asked and both Ron and Harry looked oblivious.

"I heard she was killed in a heated game of exploding snaps by… well, you know, the usual suspect." Ron said, his voice trailing off in discomfort.

"What happened?" Harry asked while giving Ron a look of disdain that expressed his idea about Ron's idea.

Hermione gave a furtive look to Professor Binns who continued droning on and on despite the fact that the three students in the front row were talking quietly amongst themselves.

"All right, yesterday…" And Hermione told Ron and Harry every detail of what had happened, leaving out a few choice details that she wished to keep to herself for at least another day.

"All that happened and no one has a clue?" Harry asked. Hermione nodded and he shook his head. "I wonder why Dumbledore wouldn't tell us. He's never kept anything like this from us before."

"Maybe it's because she got away-"

"All the more reason for us to know, don't you think?" Harry interrupted Ron who shrugged.

"All I know is that whatever is really going on, none of us have really got a clue if Dumbledore isn't saying anything about it." Hermione said as she began copying notes in a hurry. I'm thinking we should lay low for a while and not doing any blatant investigation." Before Harry could interrupt her Hermione changed the subject. "Harry, can you be a dear and turn your book this was just a notch?"

"So how are the Slytherins taking Malfoy's great betrayal?" Ron said with a sarcastic lilt to his voice.

"I'm sure they're fairing well enough…"

Draco growled under his breath as the sixth piece of parchment this class hit him in the back of the head as he tried to study for their transfiguration quiz next class.

"Mr. Crabbe, I am not joking with you. The next piece of parchment that finds itself projectile in my room will not only cause _you_ great grief, but also your house." McGonagall threatened for the third time and Draco sighed.

The Ravenclaws laughed and whispered behind their hands and the only solace Draco found during the entire class was found when he delved into his mind for memories of Hermione or studied. But… studying was more urgent and he had to stop dwelling, for that was what it was.

Looking up front he watched McGonagall teach and was absorbed in her words. It was another lesson his father had taught him and words that had lain dormant in his mind for what seemed like years resurfaced.

"Even when one has other things on his mind he need not let his conscious dwell on it for more often than not, his subconscious is ripping it to shreds for later, more appropriate times of dwelling…" Draco felt a shudder pass through him at the thought of his father's lessons but covered it with an uncomfortable position shift.

"-Its is only when a wizard finds himself in dire need that he would think of using such a spell on himself." McGonagall said and Draco realized her voice had refocused itself. "Animaguses are very dangerous when they are unregistered and by due process of law any unregistered animagus may be prosecuted."

"Haven't we already gone over all this?" Draco asked bitterly as he brushed a few crusted specs of ink from his page and McGonagall smiled.

"The only reason we go over this now is because you all are almost of age, Mr. Malfoy, and young men and women sometimes think themselves above any law that may get in the way of some of their _fun…_" She said. "We are trying to force it into your brains what a serious law you would be breaking if you ever attempted such a transformation. It is dangerous to as you, the law-breaker, as well as the rest of the wizarding world." She said.

"Is it hard to become an animagus?" Asked a Ravenclaw from the back and Draco studies McGonagall's face intently.

"It took me the greater part of seven years to go through the entire process and at this point in time there are still difficulties I encounter every transformation." She replied with a smile. "Everything a wizard does relies, in at least some way, on the environment. A shiver due to abnormal cold or fear could cause a temporary mutation that could risk your life- make you vulnerable to a great many elements that would otherwise be found _outside_ your spectrum, Miss Charleston."

"Will this be on our test?" Asked a softly Irish accented female voice behind Draco that he recognized as Heather Holley's.

"You could bet your life on it, Holley. I hope you've all written extensive notes for we are about to enjoy a pop-quiz." McGonagall said while clapping her hands together. With a wave of her wand the papers were distributed around the classroom.

"Shit…" Draco whispered to himself. Damn Hermione! Damn his father! Draco read through the questions and when his quiz was completed he did not allow his mind to wander…

Hermione leaned her chin on an open palm and stared at the chalkboard. Flitwick was Frantically trying to prepare them for some great task he was going to give them but Hermione found she didn't have the capacity to care…

Her head had been in the clouds all day and nothing was going to change this. All she could focus on was the next time she would see Malfoy and this was becoming quite the grievance considering who her company was all day long.

"Miss Granger, is something bothering you?" Asked the nervous, squeaky voice of their professor and Hermione stifled a yawn as she shook her head no. "You see out of it." He said and Hermione shrugged.

"I feel all right." She said slowly and Harry nudged her roughly in the ribs with his elbow. "I'm great! What're we doing?" She asked and a look of pure terror spread on the professor's face.

"The OWL's are so near, Miss Granger! You need to focus- oh, I never thought I'd say that to you of all people!" He exclaimed and Hermione fought a pang of guilt as it settled in her stomach.

"I'm sorry, I left my color coded note cards in my _other_ bag." Hermione hissed and Ron let out a laugh that was soon turned into a cough.

"Yes," Flitwick began. "Well, next time bring them." He said. Obviously he had missed the sarcasm in her voice and the thought made her feel even guiltier. He had taken her completely seriously. _It's not him that's changed…_Hermione hushed the quiet voice in the back of her mind, despite the fact she knew it told the truth, and tried to focus on the now sullen professor's lecturing.

"We will be having a group quiz," he explained. "Each of you will be given a sheet of paper with a list of all the spells you are required to know at this point in time. You will divide them fifteen to each person in you group and you will practice." Flitwick took a deep breath then continued. "Then, I will call each of you up in a random order and you will perform a random spell of my choosing. I will be grading on technique, power of voice, and how the spell works so do exactly as I have taught you and you should do fine." He paused again to gauge the reaction. "We will be doing this every last class of the weeks before OWL's." There were groans around the room and Hermione was surprised to find herself groaning along with the majority of the class.

Flitwick passed out the papers and paused at the Gryffindor group apprehensively. "Will you be able to work with these two productively?" Asked Flitwick and Hermione scowled.

"Haven't I always?" She asked darkly and Flitwick frowned.

"Yes, always." He said while handing them the sheets. He quickly moved to his desk and sat atop his pile of books, staring gloomily at the students around him. Occasionally he would offer a comment or two but other than that he kept unusually, broodingly silent…

"What the hell is your problem?" Harry asked as he gave Hermione a glare that she was sure she would never forget.

"I… I…" Hermione trailed off and shrugged. "I'm tired of caring." She answered and Ron laughed.

"Let's work." Harry said and Hermione nodded. "Whatever it is, we can talk later, you and I." He said and Ron nodded.

"All right… Hermione gets the levitating one and… oh! The translation one as well, and that one right there and what about the…" Ron's voice trailed off as he received a look of shock from Hermione and Harry. "What?" He asked.

"Those are all the really hard ones." Harry replied curtly.

"Yeah, well… she never minded before." Ron objected.

"Well, she does this time. We're all going to pull our own weight. What're you going to do if you get a hard one?" Asked Harry and Ron shrugged. "Exactly. _You_ get the levitating one and I'll have… yes, the shadow one…"

Hermione looked at Harry a look of admiration mingled with thankfulness on her face and began taking charms that she preferred.

Standing after ten minutes of negotiating for spells they readied themselves for the practicing. "All right, we should go counterclockwise with turns." Harry suggested and Hermione nodded. That meant Ron went first.

"All right… first on my list… Wingardium Leviosa." He shifted into a ready stance and lifted his wand. "What shall I make fly?" He asked and Hermione looked around.

"How about Flitwick's hat? I'm up for a good laugh." She offered and Ron nodded.

"It was an accident, I was aiming for one of the books on his desk, that's the story, all right?" Hermione and Harry both nodded, waiting for the thing to happen. "_Wingardium Leviosa!"_ Ron exclaimed and they watched humorously as Flitwick's hat slowly rose off and hovered four feet above the wizard's head.

"What on earth- My hat!" He shouted as he attempted to jump for it. "My hat! Help!" He shouted but no one could move for the laughter was contagious. Flitwick jumped and he jumped but to no avail.

And, as planned, Ron had _accidentally_ missed with the spell and it had hit the teacher's hat by pure incident…

"Your turn, Hermione." Ron said with a smile still present on his elven face. He motioned her to get on with it and she complied. She was ready to feel magic under her fingertips again.

"Hmmm… I have the decutio one right here. I'll just knock over that book, set it up for me Harry, please." Hermione said and Harry nodded. "All right…" Hermione readied her self and as she gripped her wand tightly in her hand she felt the magic collect within her hand and felt it course into her wand ready to let loose the second she said the magic word. "_Decutio!_" Hermione said and she felt the magic loose itself towards the book, which was soon knocked over onto its side.

"Good show!" Flitwick said and Hermione smiled. It felt good.

"Now you Harry." Ron said and Harry glared.

"I have… the displodo spell… cool, I get to blow something up!" He exclaimed and Hermione rolled her eyes. "What to blow up, what to blow u- I know!" He said suddenly. "Ron, step a little to the right, perfect! _Displodo!_" Ron let out a high-pitched shriek and jumped out of the way of the spell. Hermione crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head.

"That was dang-"

"You should have seen the look on your face." Harry laughed and Ron's tight-lipped frown broke into a smile and once again Hermione found herself lost in the vortex of a relationship she would never understand. The relationship between male friends that she would never share in on…

"All right," Ron began. "It's my turn and I have the heightening charm, amplifico alere… Hermione, you're tall enough. Harry let's make you eye level." Ron suggested and Harry shrugged, a bitter smile touching his lips. His height was a sensitive issue.

"Now," Ron said. "Do you want to be Hagrid tall or Fred and George tall?" Ron asked Harry who shrugged. "All right then, you get what you get then. _Amplifico alere!_" Ron said and Harry didn't move. "What the-"

Suddenly a shriek sounded from a table nearby and Ron cringed. "Oops." He muttered while trying to look innocent.

" Amber's not going to be too pleased…" Ron said. "Me elongating one of her brethren and all." He finished.

"Amber?" Hermione inquired with a smirk.

"They're quite serious these days." Harry interjected and Ron threw him an ugly glare.

"Is that so?" Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow. "Good for you two." She said and she was surprised to find that she meant it. She had someone else besides Ron on her even if she wasn't ready to admit it yet…

"Yeah… I had to beg on my knees for what happened at the ball. I was sort of a jerk." He said slowly and Hermione nodded.

"Yeah, you were."

"Get on with it, Hermione." Harry said. "Quick before Flitwick realizes you're a socialite in disguise."

"Oh fuck you Harry." Hermione said and immediately a hand flew to her mouth. But instead of looks of shock, Hermione saw a grin spread across Harry's face and both the bows burst into laughter.

"I knew it!"

"Ron, I have next spell and I choose you as my guinea pig. Let's see, it's the levo spell… I'm going to make you stupid." Ron's smile faded and Hermione lifted her wand…

Draco walked into the potions classroom and took his seat. Second row, third seat back… he had been dreading this moment since lunch when his mind had been freed of educational distraction. It was during that time that he realized he had an almost three hour period with Hermione Granger and he couldn't say a word.

With a sigh, Draco took a look around the room noting all the Slytherins present. He had decided the night before that he would reintegrate himself into the Slytherins for it was better to be safe and hated than in danger and loved. For what protection did love offer other than fanatic distractions?

There was a loud bang as Heather Holley slammed her books onto the table and sat in the seat next to him. "Hello, Draco. How is one like yourself doing on a fine day like this?" She asked speaking in the riddle he had become accustomed to hearing in her voice.

"I was just about to say hello to Crabbe over there." Draco said with a calculated sneer and Heather laughed.

"Running amongst the wolves again, eh?" She asked. "Little do they know… you're a sheep." She said in a whispered tone so only he could hear. "A black one, but a sheep all the same, eh?"

"I'm no sheep." Draco spat. "I am just as horrible as any in the lot of them." He said.

"Right, and I'm Harry Potter's sister." Heather said.

"Why don't you run along and join your little anime club. They sit right over there with the Gryffindorks." Draco said slowly, his tone was sarcastic but the grin on his face suggested she had better do it.

"Please, Draco." Heather said sardonically as she read his expression. "You're about as much a threat to my person as you father himself." Heather snarled emphasizing, he was sure, the fact that his father was dead.

"Help me then." Draco whispered.

"Ah, I knew there was something you needed. Else would you re-mingle with the bunch of block-headed cannibals over there? What is it you'll be needing, then?" She asked.

"I have to find my way back into the inner workings of Slytherin…" Draco said and he let his voice trail off dramatically.

"Why on earth?" Heather asked but Draco shook his head.

"All _you_ need to know is that it is a necessity." He replied coolly, almost harshly and Heather nodded.

"Your quickest way would be through Crabbe." She offered and Draco nodded.

"I guessed that much… He seems to be the new Slytherin king." Draco stated bitterly and Heather smiled.

"Missing the position of power, Draco?" She asked and Draco shook his head. "The girls then?" Draco rolled his eyes.

"I miss the option." He said quietly. "Can you help me or not?"

"You're going to have to do a lot of Gryffindor bullying, something you seem to excel at, and there'll be a lot of proving to do along the way." Heather said, informing him of all the facts, but this he already knew.

"How long will it take?" He asked and Heather thought for a moment.

"We won't be starting until we have a game plan, but once everything starts coming together it shouldn't take more than two weeks." Heather replied. "But there's something you have to know, Draco. This isn't a game. Once you're there you can't back out again." She said, stating something that had crossed his mind more than once these past few hours he had dwelled on it.

"Shouldn't I do something today?" Draco asked feeling as if he was being idle for an image of Hermione had just flashed in front of closed lids…

"Yes… You might want to try talking to the beast today… test the waters a bit, yes, you should do that." She said. "Tell him something he wants to hear and if they bring up what happened between you and Hermione think of something good or it'll be your head above Crabbe's door and not hers."

Though Draco didn't like the reference of Hermione's head above _anyone's_ door he agreed.

Standing, Draco straightened his cloak and strode, in dignity, to Crabbe's table of miscreants.

"Well if it isn't the great betrayer…" Said the voice of one of Crabbe's close companions that Draco recognized as Alec Norrington, a seventh year who was repeating potions with the sixth years… twice.

"Come to beg?" Hissed a female voice. That voice he didn't recognize until he matched the face. It was Millicent but boy had she cleaned up nicely. It was obvious that _someone_ had done a charm on her blockish figure and turned her into a voluptuously curved young woman… It certainly wasn't natural how attractive she had gotten this past year.

"No… I merely wished to clear up a few things that you don't seem to understand." Draco held up his hand as someone opened their mouth to add a snide comment and barked in the voice of command his father had given him. "I am speaking." He said and Crabbe smiled, letting a chuckle free from his massive chest.

"Right, go on."

"I thought it imperative that you know I harbor no ill will to Slytherins as you should not, Vincent." Draco said in his smooth voice that he used when 'buttering up' a diplomat of importance.

"I wish I hadn't been forced to it, Draco. The dark lord has made it clear to me that those who would not stay loyal in times of peace cannot be trusted in war." Crabbe said. "It is a simple concept that you -especially you- should know." He said.

"Who said I was ever disloyal?" Draco asked in his slippery voice and the sound caused his stomach to churn.

"We saw what you did… saving the Gryffindor girl like that… forcing Pansy to flee into hiding… What else could your actions display to us?" Crabbe asked and suddenly Draco was struck by how much they had all underestimated this Slytherin's intelligence. What a mistake that was!

"A death on the hands of the Slytherins!" Draco said. "Well, if the war between all the houses hadn't began, that surely would have sparked _something_. You take me as a fool? I know what lies in the best interest of my house and the death of the Gryffindor would not have done at all." Draco crossed his arms over his chest and the he felt the familiar curling of his lip as he sneered the sneer that was his… He felt the familiarity in this and suppressed a shudder.

"What happened to what you conveyed to our late mutual friend. He told me of a very distressing conversation you two had and to not consider that would make me a fool." Crabbe said. He was smart… Goyle had been a decoy, Draco realized. A decoy used to distract away from Crabbe's intelligence. _Had Goyle known?_ That was why Crabbe was still alive and Goyle dead… Goyle hadn't been faking his stupidity.

"Indeed… I was going through a rough phase at that time… My father had just died and I was left without my mentor, a loss of great proportions you should know." Draco replied smartly and Crabbe nodded. Draco could tell he was still reading him from the cold, calculating look in the Slytherin's eyes.

"I thought we had lost you there. You will be a most valuable… friend." Crabbe said, a smile flashing its way across his mouth. _Welcome to testing phase_, his look said to Draco and he swallowed deep in his throat.

Suddenly the bell rang and Draco gave a short nod of his head and left the small congregation of Slytherins to their whispers and suspicions. Sitting down next to Heather he let out a sigh of relief and she smiled.

"They bought it?" She asked and Draco nodded. "You must be good." She commented dryly.

"He's a lot smarter than he let on…" Draco said and Heather let out a small laugh.

"It was there for those who would see it, you know." Heather said. "It's like the legend of the sorcerer's stone in the famed mirror of Erised. Those who would use it could not see it…"

"Whatever you're going on about…" Draco's voice trailed off as three very happy Gryffindors entered the classroom… Obviously he wasn't the only one who had rekindled old alliances among his house. Potter and Weasley seemed quite pleased with themselves though Weasel had an oddly dumb look on his face.

"Sit down already." Said a sharp voice from Snape's inner office and all the talk stopped. Snape emerged as unhappy and sour as ever and walked to the front of the classroom waiting for affect. It was a method of intimidation. "Sixth years… OWL's are approaching and considering that this week is OWL awareness week for Hogwarts I will do no less than test and test and test you…" There were groans around the classroom and Snape smirked. They were miserable and he fed off their misery.

"First," He began and some people jump at the sharp abruptness with which he had spoken. "We will learn about a very dangerous potion used only for the darkest of purposes." He said and everyone was suddenly hanging on his every word.

Draco admired his teacher then, as he always had, for his innate ability to attract electric attention to himself. The man was quite capable when it came to stealing their attention and turning it into blubbering adoration whether negative or positive. "It is called the concocion de amore." He said, his voice taking on the lilting Latin accent most professionally.

"I thought you said that we wouldn't be studying love potions for another two terms. It says in our course guidelines that we received over Christmas break that love potions were not to be explored until late into seventh year." Suddenly Draco's head went to mush… Thoughts of the face behind that voice were enough to cripple him, he realized suddenly and he didn't like it.

"If we went strictly by the guidelines you would remain ignorant forever, Miss Granger." He hissed quietly by dangerously. "Oh, and next time you call out of turn, it _will_ cost you… dearly." Snape threatened and Draco grinned. Snape's words were enough to wake him from his substantially weakened state. It was imminent that he stray from the path of mixing emotion and education. Things like that never worked properly. _Perhaps that's the point…_ Draco shook his head slowly and pulled out a piece of parchment on which to take notes.

Slowly his glance and attention slipped from his curved and tilted writing across the classroom where Hermione sat paying avid attention to Snape's lesson.

He watched as Hermione chewed the end of her quill and he wondered what she thought about that made her nervous… Turning back to his paper he mentally smacked himself, forcing himself to focus singly upon his parchment.

Hermione felt eyes upon her but was afraid to turn. Biting her quill she tried to focus on Snape's words… But it was so hard to do when just feet away sat her rescuer. _He called me beautiful…_Her feminine side cried out with glee at the thought but her sensible side said it was a whim that Draco was temporarily exploring… temporarily.

Sighing, she ventured a look across the room and, catching a glimpse of silvery hair she quickly looked away. Slowly and discreetly looking back, Draco came into view and he was concentrating so hard on his parchment that she wondered if he even had anything else on that mind of his…

Hermione smiled as she saw him subconsciously pick lint off of his robe's sleeve. She noticed that it was a habit when he was either stressed or frustrated. Which was it? Stressed or frustrated? It was like he wasn't clean enough already. _If he keeps at it, he's going to pick the thing apart,_ she thought to herself. Looking back to the front, Hermione silently sighed. She was so confused about everything._ He called me beautiful…_

Draco grudgingly let his eyes wander and as they always did they fell upon a bushy-haired, smart, pretty Gryffindor with an affinity for being right. If he could only… But no, the thought was absurd, he convinced himself. To even ponder that thought was blasphemy… it was a disrespect to his dead father.

But it was such an attractive thought, his less socially controlled side said and even his logical side had to agree. Since when did Draco Malfoy have sides, he asked himself very suddenly. Looking forwards, Draco noticed a very large, hooked nose in front of his face.

"Amused Mr. Malfoy?" Snape breathed and Draco leaned back airily and gave a passive smile to his favorite professor.

"Quite… Your classes always carry an… air of excitement I find hard to deny." Draco replied slyly. This was for his performance, nothing more and Snape had to realize this or else Draco was in big trouble with his head of house.

"Good… Now I suggest you quickly find yourself a seat on the other side of the room that will cause a bit less of a distraction to your obviously incapacitated brain." Snape snarled and Draco gathered his things with a smile on his face.

"What is he thinking?" Hermione asked Harry suddenly and her friend shrugged.

"How're any of us going to guess what goes on in that head of his. You should really take better notes, Hermione." Harry said and she glared. "You think kittens are going to help you pass the test?"

Hermione looked down at her paper, saw hearts and kittens, crumpled it up, and shoved it, embarrassed, into her bag where she swore it would stay for all of eternity. She doubted she could even throw it away lest someone recognize her hand writing…

"Settle down, you're a bit distracted. That's all right…" Harry whispered and Hermione took a deep breath. "Just don't make a habit of it. I don't think I like taking the full load… That's usually _your_ job."

"I won't make a habit of it…" Hermione said.

The Slytherins were the first ones to leave the class and before Hermione could catch Draco he had disappeared into the folds of his old posse… Was there something he had neglected to tell her? _He doesn't have to tell you everything, you know._

"I know!"

"What Hermione? Did you say something?" Ron asked and Hermione stared at him in mock confusion.

"What are you talking about? You're definitely hearing things, Ron. You may want to get your hearing checked." Hermione said and Ron fingered his ears nervously.

"That was mean." Harry said in an undertone and Hermione giggled.

"But the expression on his face was worth it…"

"So when are you coming back to the dorms?" Crabbe asked and Draco shrugged.

"I prefer the prefect dorms, actually. They're much roomier. More fit for a Malfoy." He replied perfectly in character and Crabbe laughed.

"Always one for finery… It's been quite the long time, Draco." Crabbe patted him on the back and Draco fought the urge to vomit as if he had just seen a human slaughtered…

"Yes, well, my father taught me that those who earned the best deserved the best." Draco said.

"Sorry about your father… It must have been quite the blow for your mother, the poor girl." Draco resented that Crabbe talked about his mother like a common lesser person but let it pass without comment.

"She was distraught but she is working hard to piece things back together before I return home for Spring Break." Draco stated with a yawn.

Their little entourage of Slytherins turned the corner and Draco spotted the group of Gryffindors headed towards them. He saw Hermione among the group and felt his stomach drop as he saw her laugh at one of weasel's lame jokes. He could practically hear the Slytherins around him bear their teeth and growl. But Draco was unable to break his eyes from Hermione and missed Crabbe's question…

Hermione looked up, her stomach sore from laughing and her eyes caught Draco's as he and his group of Slytherin's marched forth like a Phalanx of Spartans ready for battle. The Gryffindors around her tensed as they neared and she saw Harry's mouth turn down into a frown.

Hermione flexed her fingers, wishing to wave and say hello, but the greeting died in her throat. Unable to break eye contact, Hermione kept her eyes locked onto Draco's gray-blue irises as if they were the only to people in the halls…

Draco felt his hand spasm as he resisted the drive to give a sweet greeting. Instead he kept her eyes in his sight and walked on.

Passing one another the Gryffindors and Slytherins exercised great impulse control not to start a brawl in the middle of the hallway. Passing, there was only silence…

Hello… 

_Hey…_

"You all right, it looks like you're blushing…" Ron said and Hermione shrugged.

"Those Slytherins get all of us riled up." Seamus said with a laugh and Hermione nodded. Harry though, didn't miss the flushed look on her face and the way her hands shook. Either she was afraid of the Slytherin or she… or she… no…

"Well, are you going to answer me?" Crabbe asked and Draco snapped back to reality. Pushing the image of Hermione's chocolate brown eyes from his mind he asked Crabbe to repeat the question.

"What were you thinking of?" Crabbe asked and Draco shrugged.

"Gryffindors are so arrogant… It makes me lose my mind is all." Draco replied slowly, convincingly, or so he thought. Crabbe turned a raised eyebrow expression to Norrington who nodded.

"Understandable… Certainly understandable…"


	22. The Challenge

Chapter 22: The Challenge

Draco went to the library the first opportunity that Crabbe gave him and as minuscule an opportunity it was, Draco was no fool. He knew better then to test their binds at this point.

Entering the room as quietly as he could he saw Hermione at the table, a book in her hands. She looked up, glanced back at her book, looked up again and quickly put her book down.

"Hey." He muttered oddly and Hermione jumped up to grab a file.

"Just taking a small break." She said as she found one of her files and set it noiselessly on the table.

"That has to stop." Draco said as he grabbed his own file. "We're going to need to step up the progress. The need for this counter curse is more urgent than ever now that we saw what happened with Pansy." He said slowly as he sat at the table.

"Right…" Hermione said as she laid out and organized a stack of aged papers then pulled out fresh sheaves of rough parchment from her bag. "The other day I got stuck on this one…" She shuffled through a smaller stack and pulled out a piece of parchment numbered five thirty three… they had gotten that far.

Looking at it Draco saw immediately what the problem was. "Three wasn't s, remember?" He asked and Hermione smacked her forehead.

"So it's t. That makes so much more sense." She smiled at him then and Draco squirmed.

The parchment felt dry under his fingertips and as he looked over the slightly flaked words he decided to tell Hermione something he had kept from her. "I realized something the other day." Draco said slowly, cautiously and Hermione looked up, staring at him suspiciously.

"And what would that be?" She inquired.

"I think you and I may have developed a sort of rapport." He answered abruptly and Hermione let out a short laugh.

"So much effort in one simple statement." She said and her voice suggested she sensed it too.

"That's not all, of course." Draco said and Hermione's smile faded quickly.

"Now that I have reestablished my ties to my Slytherin peers I will have to show a bit more… erm… discretion with whom I share my time with and…"

"It would be unseemly to befriend a Gryffindor mudblood." Hermione finished bitterly and Draco sighed. "Are you really considering going back down that path?" She asked. "I need to know."

"Of course not!" Draco exclaimed, the color draining from his face in anger. "I told you before. Self-preservation is the issue at hand for me and in order to assure my safety as well as your own this is something I must do, as distasteful as it may seem to one such as yourself."

"One such as myself?" Hermione asked, her eyes reducing to slits and Draco raised his nose, nostrils flaring. He realized with a startling precision that he had meant to start this argument. It would be so much easier to betray her if they were both angry with one another.

"Yes, one such as yourself. " He said. "You have a sense of stability within your group. They accept anyone and you don't have to fear that one moment you are one thing and the next you you're no longer sure _where_ you stand in the scheme of things." He practically shouted as if this wouldn't make sense to her otherwise.

"I understand that but why must you segregate yourself. You are human and I am human…" She said. "When we are together we are equal, give me that respect." Hermione pleaded and Draco felt himself and his resolve melting. She was so hard to argue with when she was sensible.

"I am more than human, Hermione." He whispered.

"You don't have to be and you know this, I am sure." She said slowly while crossing her arms over her chest.

"Tell me where I have a choice."

"Right now. Be human." Hermione said quietly and Draco sighed.

"To bleed… to love, is this what you want from me?" Draco asked in little more than a whisper and Hermione shook her head.

"I ask no more of you than what you can offer. You have the choice right now. You _can_ choose, Draco, and it hurts you to know it because it would make you wrong about everything you ever believed to be true. Everything you believed to be stable…"

"Then if I kissed you… would that make me human?" He asked and Hermione shrugged. "Even gods mingle with mortals." He said.

"You are not a god."

"No, but I was groomed to become one. I have been groomed my whole life for the position of power Voldemort occupies and he knows it." Draco said. "I finally understand why he showed such a keen interest in me in the first place."

"And what is this interest?"

"He knows that I am a stronger ally than an enemy. If he controls me now he will control me later. But there is one thing he didn't count on." Draco said with a smile that made Hermione shiver.

"And what is that?"

"I wish to be neither his ally nor his enemy. I merely wish to be and to be free to make the choices I want." Draco stated with a tense restraint. It was as if by saying the words he made them permanent.

"So you admit you have a choice." She said.

"We shall see…" And they both were silent the rest of their session, a disturbing atmosphere of intensity mingled with urgency surrounding their work.

"I'm going to bed." Hermione said as she stood and gathered her papers. "Goodnight." She wrapped her cloak around her shoulders and walked to the door. Draco stood and met her at the door.

"Goodnight." He whispered and she turned the handle. As she opened it and began to leave, Draco made a dangerous choice.

"I want to be human." He said suddenly as he grabbed her arm gently and pulled her to him. "I want so much to be human. I just want to be a child…" Looking down at her, a longing for someone long gone filled him.

Draco felt Hermione's arms lace around him seeking a comfort of their own and Draco sighed. He looked down into her eyes and could see his reflection and he found himself shocked to see blatant emotion on his face. He could see what anyone must. He had feelings for Hermione that went beyond friendship or camaraderie. He had feelings for this girl that, for both of their safety, needed to be destroyed.

He had already known how Hermione felt. He had seen it written on her face after he had saved her from his wild housemates. She adored him yet she blamed him in part for it.

"We should go." He whispered and he felt Hermione laugh against him. Of course he should be the sensible one now. It was ironic yet it made perfect sense.

"I knew there could only be distance." She said slowly with just a tinge of woe. "You are unable to trust even the source of your doubt because you doubt doubt itself." Stepping away she nodded to him then turned and disappeared into the darkened library leaving Draco to swallow his pride and accept that what she said was true.

After the first class of the day, Draco was looking forward to the double danger of Care of Magical Creatures. First of all, the oaf Hagrid, their groundskeeper, had an odd attraction to maliciously dangerous and unpredictable animals that the average wizard rarely saw in an entire lifetime let alone on school property. And then there were the Gryffindors wherein lay a whole different set of dangers that could seem just as fatal.

With his bag slung airily over his shoulder he made his way over the damp grass, down the stone steps leading to Hagrid's paddock and he waited.

As he waited for others to join him at the bottom of the hill Draco recalled with frightening clarity the conversation he had just had with Heather, his new ally amongst the overwhelming betrayals and dramas of the house of Slytherin.

He had been eating when she approached him and sat in the empty seat next to him. Resignedly Draco had dropped his fork and pushed his plate away. They had a lot of planning to do but first of all, Draco had to add a new complication for Heather to consider.

"I have a plan-"

"And before you share that plan there is something you should know." Draco said. "It may complicate things a bit."

"Shoot." She said, urging him to share.

"I may have feelings for someone that I shouldn't." He said and Heather nodded, indicating that she wanted a name. "Hermione Granger to be more specific."

"Complicate things a bit!" She exclaimed. "You bloody moron this changes everything including what your approach to this whole thing should have been!" She practically shouted. "Get up, you and I are off for a walk. We can't talk here." She said suddenly and Draco realized that they were at the Slytherin lunch table surrounded by Slytherins…

"Right."

"Unbelievable." She said once they were out of earshot. "And how on earth could this have possibly been an afterthought?" She asked.

"When I made the decision I didn't think it was an option." He replied truthfully. "I didn't think that I could develop feelings for someone so wrong for me-"

"And that is exactly why you should never consider anyone out of your scope." Heather said. "My god! You are a pathetic moron aren't you?"

"Are you going to help me or are you going to judge me?" He asked suddenly, angrily clenching his fists at his sides.

"If it's affective I don't see why a can't do both." She replied curtly. "I have a question about the whole situation though." She said and Draco shrugged.

"Whatever."

"Does Hermione know?" She asked.

"I dunno… I almost kissed her last night and I think it's pretty clear how I feel…" Draco said uncomfortably and his face grew flushed.

"No…" Heather said with a smirk. "Does she know about your decision to go back to the Slytherins?"

"Oh!" Draco said. "Well, I… I think she would have to… know…" Draco said uneasily. Hermione laughed at his discomfort and Draco crossed his arms defiantly. "You should have been more clear."

"And miss an opportunity to see Draco Malfoy blush like a schoolboy in love?" She asked Draco growled under his breath and Heather quickly regained her composure reestablishing her serious demeanor. "So, she knows." Draco nodded and Heather acted as if she was waiting for him to say something.

"What?" He asked dumbly as they turned a corner.

"How does she feel about it!" The question struck Draco and he realized he didn't really know how she felt about it. In fact, he didn't know how she felt about a lot of things…

"I don't know…" Draco explained slowly.

"You don't know and you expect me to draft a plan? Do her opinions or feelings even matter to you at all or are you just a bumbling idiot when it comes to this 'feelings' stuff?" Draco repressed the urge to walk away or say something foul and shrugged.

"I never even thought about it…" He said.

"Maybe you should."

_Maybe he should…_ Draco thought as he refocused on his surroundings and noticed a group of stragglers and loners scattered about him. These were the people who finished lunch early and went straight to class, the ones who had no friends.

Suddenly there was a commotion up the hill from the paddock and Draco watched as Crabbe and his group of wily companions made their way towards him pushing those who were less important aside as if they were just objects in between them and their destination.

"Good day for care of magical creatures, eh?" Crabbe said with a smile full of mischief. "The old oaf's hell hasn't even begun this year. Things should really pick up with you around again." He added and Draco noted the reference to his past experiences with the groundskeeper and Draco recognized it as a call for a test. This class was going to be a test.

"Yeah." Draco replied quietly and Crabbe nodded. Draco had accepted his challenge.

"Do you know what the lesson plan is for today? You've always had connections." Crabbe said and Draco shrugged.

"You've got me. The wench that used to dig up information for me graduated last year." Draco said, a tone of deliberate and measured disgust touching his voice.

"Oh well. Improvisation is a fun game. Makes you think fast and on the spot." Crabbe said and Draco knew what he said to be sincere. Crabbe had always liked a good challenge when it came to discrediting or humiliating someone. Boy how they had underestimated this Slytherin!

"It seems the Gryffindor gods have come to join us." Someone in the group muttered in disgust and the group's attention moved from the unfolding bandy of words between Draco and Crabbe to the approaching group of Gryffindors.

Specifically he looked at Hermione. She was usually a good indicator of the group's mood but her face was composed of stone. Potter's expression looked stormy and Weasel's face, as usual, held an air of arrogance that Draco found very annoying and slightly unsettling. Unpredictable today, Draco decided and he readied himself for conflict.

"Hey Weasel, how's your mum?" Crabbe asked, shouting over the heads of many interlopers. When Weasley ignored his question Crabbe continued, unafraid of any conflict that might become f his next statement. "She looked great and pleased when I got through with her."

Weasel stopped, rigid and Draco inwardly sighed. Was Crabbe stupid or did he truly know what he was about to begin.

Draco saw Hermione whisper something in his ear and Weasley nodded, resuming his walking to the front edge of the paddock.

"Oh, Weasel's mudblood whispering sweet nothings in his ears to calm him down?" Crabbe shouted and Draco felt his own blood boil. Was this part of the test? "If she wasn't such a slut I'd probably do her to Weasel." He said and Draco fought the urge to kill something at the thought of her and Goyle… even worse, her and Weasley.

"Everything all right out here? The bell ring yet?" Crabbed turned to come face to face, or face to torso rather, with the Hogwarts' groundskeeper, Rubeus Hagrid, the half-giant. Crabbe shook his head defiantly and Hagrid clapped his giant hands together. "Right then, let's get to work. I have a rather special surprise for ye today." He said and Draco noted the many groans that traveled around the paddock. They all knew what surprise meant. Bloody blast-ended skrewts were the result of Hagrid's _surprises_.

"Great." Draco muttered.

The Gryffindor dream team stepped forward and helped Hagrid open the back gate. He saw Hermione ask Hagrid what he had but the old oaf refused to tell, saying it was a grand surprise and not to be worried. That made it worse somehow and Draco felt his stomach clench as he saw Hermione suddenly stumble back from the gate.

"Now, don' be frightened." He said loudly so they all could hear. "They can smell fear." Now he had gone too far, Draco knew as he heard the roar of a very large and very angry beast.

Leading it out with a dead animal Hagrid lured a very grand surprise into the fence surrounding the paddock.

"'Ere she is, students, a real Sphinx." The human-faced lion, as if on cue, let out a particularly ferocious roar and many people screamed and fell further back. "It's all right, she's completely harmless." He assured them but Draco sensed a bit of apprehension in the giant's voice.

"Hagrid…" Hermione began but her voice trailed off as she saw the resolved look on the man's face. "What's her name?" Hermione asked.

"This one's name is Docere and the other one out back is Fallacia." Hagrid replied, the Latin words rolling off his tongue with halting imperfection. _Clever and Deceit… Truly the names of Sphinxes,_ Draco thought to himself.

"You have two?" Asked someone near him and Draco sighed.

"Why not? They're harmless if yer nice and answer their questions." Hagrid answered.

"Right. They're harmless if you answer their questions right." Draco said loud enough for the class to hear and Hermione threw him a venomous look. Draco recoiled. He wondered what he had done to deserve that look.

"Correct you are Mr. Malfoy." Hagrid admitted. "Anyone want a go?" Draco lost focus on the oaf's words of persuasion and focused on the lion. It paced with a nervous gate and Draco saw the flick of it's tail.

Draco could see, through his exceptional skills of observation that it was trying to make them all think it was restless when in reality what the tail told Draco was that it was merely waiting. Waiting patiently for its first victim. _They're opposites aimed to confuse and throw off the challenger. This one is deceitful while the other is clever…_

The conversation going on around him sank into Draco's awareness as he heard his name mentioned and he looked around. There was much laughter around him but to his left he heard shouts of encouragement. Draco stood on his toes but still he could not see over the Slytherins crowded around him to observe what was going on.

Parting the crowd with urgent yet calm shoves, Draco made it outside of the group to see Hermione in front of the other lion taking riddle after riddle. As he neared, their words became focused.

"That would be… fire." Hermione said smartly and the lion named Fallacia smiled, nodding.

"Do you wish for another riddle?" The sphinx asked in an overly calm and docile tone and Hermione nodded. "As you wish. If you fail, I will take your flesh as my lunch… this you must know."

"Yes, yes. You've said as much the last six times. Now go on." Hermione snapped and Draco smirked.

"I am, in truth, a yellow fork

From tables in the sky  
By inadvertent fingers dropped

The awful cutlery.  
Of mansions never quite disclosed

And never quite concealed  
The apparatus of the dark

To ignorance revealed."

The lion finished the statement in a tone of challenged and Hermione bit her lip, thinking.

"hmmm… A yellow fork… the apparatus of the dark, to ignorance revealed… Lighting!" She exclaimed suddenly and Draco clapped, louder than all others but when her eyes fell upon him her proud smile faded and her eyes displayed anger, the kind of anger that stemmed from hurt.

"Would you wish-"

"Yes, I would wish." Hermione urged and Draco stepped forward.

"You might want to try and give someone else a turn." Draco said and the cheering quieted.

"There's another one over there." Hermione informed him as she tried to retain some semblance of civility.

"I wasn't looking for a riddle, I was looking for a challenge." He said.

Hermione's features twisted in confusion and Draco smiled. This seemed to bring more words to her mind. "What kind of challenge?"

"You solve a riddle, I solve a riddle and the first one to lose-"

"Dies." The sphinx interjected and Draco shook his head slowly.

"I'm sure it wouldn't get that far." Draco said. "Are you up for the challenge?" He asked and Hermione nodded once.

"When have I not been?"

"All right then let's begin, lady's first." Draco said and Hermione looked at the lion waiting for the riddle. The lion smiled, a little knowing smile but behind that little smile, Draco saw her true desire. She was looking for two meals today.

"Each morning I appear

To lie at your feet,

All day I will follow

No matter how fast you run,

Yet I nearly perish

In the midday sun."

Hermione looked momentarily puzzled and began muttering under her breath. This one was harder than the last few she had answered. For some reason, the riddle made her think of a story her mother had once read to her as a child. Peter Pan, it was called.

"A shadow." She said and the sphinx gave a small incline of her head signifying that she was correct.

"Now it is your turn boy-child." The sphinx said and Draco let out a short laugh. He was pretty sure he could take whatever this lion could throw at him and more. But then again, it was that same arrogance that had gotten him into many a bad situation.

"All right, then. Get on with it." He said.

"As you wish young master…" She hissed.

"What does man love more than life  
Fear more than death or mortal strife  
What the poor have, the rich require,  
and what contented men desire,  
What the miser spends and the spendthrift saves  
And all men carry to their graves?"

"That's easy." Draco said with an airy smile. "Nothing, the answer is nothing at all." The sphinx nodded and Hermione looked at Draco in surprise.

"I wouldn't have known that one." She said and Draco nodded. He knew that.

"Well, when you grow up in a house full of pathetic dignitaries and selfish rich people you learn things others never have to know." Draco said with a sad smile and Hermione nodded, some of the loathing fading from her eyes.

"Are you ready?" The sphinx asked Hermione and she nodded. Before, failure had not even crossed her mind, but now she knew that this creature would not hesitate to maul her.

"Yes… I'm quite ready." Hermione said and the sphinx smiled.

"You can bow out gracefully and walk away from this or you can satiate your pride and be carried away… in a box." The lioness said and this only steeled Hermione's nerve further.

"I said I was ready. Are you going to deny me?" She asked.

"That would harm my own pride to deprive you of your riddle but you look a little too fleshy to eat. I'd prefer a lean meal like that one." The lion stated while nodding her head to Draco. "But I don't know if there's a riddle I possess that will fool him."

"I guess we'll have to see." Hermione said.

"Lighter than what

I am made of,  
More of me is hidden  
Than is seen."

Draco saw the wheels turning within her head and watched as her mouth opened to answer when suddenly Hagrid joined the group.

"What're you doin'?" He asked and Seamus Finnigin was the first to answer.

"Hermione and Malfoy are having a bit of a friendly contest." He said, his Irish accent strong in his reply.

"That's no good." Hagrid said. "These things are dangerous. Ye ought ter never answer more than one o' their questions in one sitting." The oaf said.

"Well, now she is committed." The sphinx said. "She accepted my challenge and she will answer or she will be eaten.

Hermione opened her mouth once again but Hagrid interrupted her. "She won' be answerin' yer question." Hagrid said.

"You would deny me my meal, Hagrid?" The sphinx said, its eyes narrowing. "You know the rules as did she when she accepted. Now she will answer or she will be eaten."

"Let her answer it." Draco said. He could see the lioness' eyes dancing with wild flames. She would either be given the wrong answer and be given her meal or she would be given the wrong answer and she would take her meal.

"Iceberg… it's an iceberg." Hermione uttered ad Hagrid clapped.

"That's enough fer today. Go on back up ter the castle, class dismissed." Draco saw the look on Hermione's face and knew that she must have known of her brush with death though few others had noticed. The lioness had almost not waited for her answer and there was little Hagrid could have done had that happened.

Hermione hurried ahead of everyone else and Draco followed not closely but far enough behind so that it looked normal. Once inside the castle, Draco followed her through the corridors until finally he was able to catch up in secret.

"You all right?" He asked her from behind and she nearly jumped out of her skin. She was pretty bothered.

"Yes, I am fine. I'm just glad I wasn't lion feed for one of Hagrid's lessons." She said, her words being forced out. "If Hagrid wouldn't have let me answer the stupid riddle the sphinx would have eaten me the first chance it got." She whispered. "Is Hagrid truly that oblivious to the dangers his projects pose to us?"

"You can answer that one yourself." Draco murmured as he leaned his back up against the wall opposite to Hermione. "He thinks that all of the animals he brings to show us are like fluffy puppies. You remember in third year when that damn hippogriff nearly took off my arm?" He asked and Hermione laughed.

"That was your fault I'm afraid. Hagrid warned us all that they were very proud and not to insult them." Hermione chided nostalgically. "You did scream like a girl." She added with the faintest of laughs and Draco joined her.

"I wasn't listening to what the old oaf was saying. I was focused on the fact that Potter had done what everyone thought impossible." Draco said with a smile at the memory. "But I did pay for it and so did the beast."

Hermione's smile faded and she shook her head. "Didn't you hear? Buckbeak got away."

"And I take it you, Potter, and Weasley were involved." Hermione shrugged with a smirk barely touching her lips and he nodded. Slowly, the memory of how she had looked at him caught up with him and he wondered aloud: "Why were you mad at me earlier?"

"Oh…" She said slowly. "Nothing, it was stupid and it's over." Draco nodded but he noticed the look of festering curiosity on her face. Suddenly she bit her lip and ventured a question. "Who's the girl I saw you with at lunch?"

_So that was it…_ "That was Heather." Draco said. "Heather Holley. She's a sixth year Slytherin too." Hermione nodded.

"Oh… so you like her?" She inquired uncomfortably and Draco couldn't believe he was about to have this conversation with Hermione Granger, the most logic of the logical, the smartest of the smart.

"Hermione, Heather and I are friends. She's helping me with reestablishing myself among my peers. That's all." He explained and Hermione nodded, but he could still sense that there was something she wasn't asking. "Anything else?" He urged and Hermione blew a strand of hair from her face.

"Explain to me again why you want to "reestablish' yourself among your peers…" She asked and it hit Draco that she didn't like it. So this was the conversation Heather said he would have to have. With a pang of fear he realized he had no idea how to explain this.

"Due to the current situation in Hogwarts it has been requested by Snape that I return, even if I am faking it, to my former self." Draco spoke slowly as if he had to think about every word that came out of his mouth, which he did. "He has brought it kindly to my attention that I, and everyone I am associated with outside of my house, are in a sort of danger that should have been canceled out by my late father's social status."

"But Goyle was killed… That means that your father's position no longer protects you." Hermione concluded and Draco smiled bitterly. "They want to create your own immunity among them, not depending on your father's."

"Exactly." He said and there was silence. "If it were just me I was worried about here I wouldn't worry so much about it. I can take care of myself but… my mother is alone and no one is there to help her while I'm away." He had almost slipped but he assumed he had recovered gracefully and Hermione nodded.

"To think… I would have made a fool out of myself." Hermione whispered more to herself than to Draco and he walked across the corridor and joined her against the other wall.

"How would you have done that?" He asked and Hermione laughed, looking over to him.

"I had this whole passionate speech planned." She began, embarrassed. "I was going to ask you about Heather and when you told me she was your girlfriend or lover or whatever I was thinking at the moment I was going to throw your whole speech to me last night back in your face word by word." Hermione said and Draco frowned.

"What could have made you think like that? Why would you have used my "speech" last night against me?" He asked.

"Because I believed you and that made me mad. I guess I was looking for an excuse to discredit you because I'm afraid." Hermione replied quickly as if the sooner she got it all out into the open the sooner it would all go away.

"Afraid of what?" Draco asked, truly confused.

"Afraid that the second I actually start believing what you're saying you're going to disappoint me and lie and cheat like you used to." She spat. "I want to be able to trust with things, Draco. But there is this doubt in the back of my mind telling me that you're dangerous. That believing everything you say is a lie would be safer than trusting you." She paused, a guilty smile on her face.

"You don't have to worry about that, Hermione." Draco said. "I would hurt _myself_ before even thinking of betraying you. I know I have a… _history_ with lying and you have no reason to trust me."

"I'm a hypocrite." She said suddenly and Draco laughed.

"No, you have common sense, something a lot of girls these days are lacking." Hermione looked up at Draco, an inquiring smile on her face.

"And how many girls with this deficiency have you deceived?" She asked. Draco shrugged while motioning her to walk beside him.

"How many stars are there?"

"Cute…"


	23. Two Very Surprised Gryffindors

This is just another Transition chapter. It's very very very short and I apologize, but like I always say, these five hundred and so words are just leading to the next so many thousands… I know it doesn't say much and it's kind of pointless but I needed a way to get to the next chapter without losing sight of what's going on around the D/H story line and how it's affecting the other characters…

Chapter 23: Two Very Surprised Gryffindors

"Did I just see what I thought I saw?" Asked Ron in disbelief and Harry was unable to answer considering his jaw lay on the ground. "Did I just see what I thought I saw?" Ron repeated in the same tone and Harry shivered.

"This isn't right… something about this has a bad smell…" Harry said slowly and Ron nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, it's Malfoy, that's the smell." Ron spat in disgust but Harry shook his head.

"No… It reeks of sincerity… That's why it's so bad. I would understand if he was doing it for some kind of sick Slytherin thing but Hermione's buying it and… Hermione's always been smarter than us." He said.

"Remember Lockhart?" Ron asked and Harry smiled.

"Could I forget?" He asked. "But no, it's not like that. Did Hermione ever let on about this?" Harry asked. "Did I miss it?"

"She's been at him all year… haven't you noticed?" Ron asked. "That's what the fight at the dance was about. That's what most of our fights have been about all year. Her and that damned Slytherin."

"I don't understand…"

"No one can… In order for something to be understood it has to make sense and nothing about this makes sense." Ron said.

"That's what bothers me…" Harry uttered with a sigh of frustration. "Come on, let's go and play a quick game of wizard's chess."

"Do you think Ginny knows about this?" Ron asked suddenly and Harry shrugged.

"Do you want to be the one to tell her?" Ron shook his head vehemently and his ears turned red. "Me neither so let's just keep it to ourselves for now. Ron nodded and Harry led Ron away from the scene of the most disturbing display of banter they had ever seen Hermione involved in.

"Where the hell did Malfoy go?" Crabbe roared and everyone in the common room shrugged or moved away.

"I thought I saw him head towards the library." Said a small female voice and Crabbe focused on Heather Holley, not one of their most popular Slytherins but a smart one.

"Why?" He asked and Heather shrugged.

"To read, to work on his silly documents, I dunno. I can't read minds." She said, her accent causing her to stumble over the words uncomfortably.

"Norrington, Bailey, follow me." He demanded and two Slytherins stood. "Jacobs, how much time until class starts?" Crabbed asked and another Slytherin looked down at his watch.

"Thirteen minutes, you have enough time to go to the library, have a look around, and cut it straight to Charms if you hurry." Jacobs said and Crabbe smiled.

"Once again you have wasted two minutes of valuable time giving me specifics that aren't necessary. This is becoming quite the annoyance." Crabbe said and the Slytherin nodded, not sorry for his exact time table.

"Let's go for a walk, shall we?" Crabbe said to the two Slytherins at their side and they left the common room and headed towards the library.

_Shit,_ Heather thought. _They're going to know I lied and then I'll be the one in trouble. Shit… Damn Draco!_


	24. The Six Ways to Get to Miss Granger

Hey all! It's been a long two weeks for me and I have finally gotten back into touch with my characters. Sorry and thanx for being in it for the long haul. Well, without further ado, here is my twenty-fourth chapter. I thought I'd give you something to look forward to so: the next chapter is so much better and I think you'll like it more so wait for it!

Chapter 24: The Six Ways to Get to Miss Granger

Draco sat in Arithmancy class utterly bored. Hermione and he had passed this point months ago. It was now mid-March and everyone in Hogwarts was feeling a bit apprehensive about the approaching tests. This was more important than the OWL's they had taken in the previous year. These exams would decide not only their classes for the next year but also their careers beyond Hogwarts.

As Draco pondered this he felt the same tension in his stomach as he always did. What was he going to do outside of Hogwarts? The only thing he had known was forfeit and all he had now was Hermione and Hermione was not a career… not one that could be openly pursued anyway.

A smile formed at the corners of his mouth as the thought came to mind and he immediately felt guilty and hurt. He was sure that Hermione's feelings for him had passed and now that he was unafraid of the consequences that would ensue, it was chance's cruel humor that led her elsewhere…

It certainly wasn't the Weasel for his focus was now upon a very attractive, smart, and perceptive Ravenclaw known as Amber Solitaire. Though gossip held no pleasure for him, Draco could not help but be heard that the two were so in love… For just a second after the controversial discovery he had wondered why that couldn't be him and Hermione. Wouldn't it be odd to be labeled as a miracle?

"Draco, are you taking notes or daydreaming?" Hermione's voice intruded into his thoughts as she elbowed him in the arm.

"Would it be bad to say a bit of both?" He asked with a smirk that Hermione returned with a scowl, the scowl he had become so used to after the winter months had passed. It was near test time and Hermione's examination senses were on fire and insatiable in their constant intrusion upon their already odd and somewhat unstable relationship.

"You really should pay attention." Hermione said with a know-it-all look on her face.

"I know…" Draco muttered, sitting up straight. "We've learned this months ago, though." He complained and Hermione smiled while shaking her head.

"That is precisely the thing Harry would say." She said and her words got their desired affect.

"Well, then… Where're we at?" He asked, his attention avidly renewed.

"Chapter seven, Page three-twenty-three, section four, paragraph two." Hermione murmured and Draco looked at her in astonishment. "What? _I've_ been paying attention and… you if you would have been you would have known that." She said.

"I think you should see a doctor, Hermione." Draco said seriously. "I think you have the antithesis of test anxiety. I think you have… test anticipation, yeah, that sounds about right."

Hermione smacked his arm lightly with a glare and turned her attention back to the front where it was better spent. _Yes, better spent._

Later on during the class, Professor Cameron approached them. "Why aren't you two in the library?" She asked and Draco was the first to speak.

"My companion, Miss Granger, thought that our time would be better spent listening to you go on about things we learned, practiced, and perfected before Christmas." He said caustically and Hermione guffawed.

"What better way to learn a branch of magic than to attend the class itself?" Hermione recited from one of those stupid learning books she had been sent from home jus days before.

"Rubbish." Cameron said and Draco smiled his own arrogant smile that he was sure she could recognize. "Have you discovered anything new yet?" Cameron asked, inquiring about the documents suddenly and Draco sat up, tensing. They had decided on what to say when asked that question but this was so sudden and unanticipated.

"We have almost reached the end." Hermione recited slowly but this only made Cameron stare at each of them more intently. "What?" Hermione asked.

"Well?" She asked.

"Well what?" Draco shrugged.

"By this time you should at least have a grasp on what the spell would have accomplished." Cameron stated knowingly.

"I-"

"Well really… it seems like a bit of silliness." Draco interrupted. He could tell by the look on Hermione's face that she was about ready to spill but they had gotten too far to turn back. She had to realize how much trouble they could get into for keeping this secret for as long as they had.

"How do you suppose?"

"There's a garden string here, a hair string there… It's just random patterns mixed into one incoherent spell." Draco replied, lying without blinking.

"Let's hope there is a new document then." Cameron said slowly as she began walking away. "Recent discoveries in London say that a lot of important work went on here, Mr. Malfoy. It's there for those who wish to find it." Her eyes glittered with curiosity but Draco was too tired of lying to try and convince her they spoke the truth, though they didn't.

"I want to tell her." Hermione said once the teacher was out of earshot and Draco turned towards her, staring hard at her. He had to give the impression that he could see through her so that she understood completely what he said.

"We are so close, Hermione." He began. "If this information was given out to every wizard out there Voldemort, I assure you, would benefit." He finished as a new argument popped into his head. "I am positive this information would not be denied to our beloved potions master and I know for a fact that he is still in communication with death eaters." He spoke as if the matter were sealed.

Hermione looked down guiltily and he could tell there was something she wasn't telling him.

"What is it?" He asked and Hermione shook her head suddenly.

"I understand. I won't tell her." Draco nodded surely. He had won.

Hermione rummaged through her bag and felt a spike of curiosity as her fingertips brushed a folded piece of parchment. Pulling it out she saw that the writing on the front said, _The Six Ways to Get to Miss Granger, a list of useful ideas of how to irritate our Gryffindor prefect…_

"Draco…" She muttered and she could only wonder how many people had a copy of this clever little list. Unfolding it slowly, she read its contents to herself aloud.

"One, she hates it when you lie. This will cost you one point. Two, she hates it when others are wronged. It's the Gryffindor in her and it will cost you two points. Third, she dislikes those who have the potential to be cruel without reason. She will find you and you will lose three points. Fourth, she hates to be wronged. To wrong her would be to lose four points. Fifth, she hates disloyalty. Also the Gryffindor in her, being disloyal will lose you five points. Sixth and lastly, Hermione Granger absolutely, positively hates being wrong. At this point you have lost so many points that you might as well not bother proving her wrong but if you dare, go on ahead, you have a braver soul than I…" Hermione's voice trailed off as tears choked her.

"What awful things to say…" She whispered but even as she said this she felt her insides melting as they always did when Draco did things like this. For weeks they would be on common, known ground, and then Draco would do something totally unexpected and she would once again doubt that what they has was nothing more than a friendship.

But then again, maybe she was taking everything he did for her the exact opposite way that he meant for it to be displayed. Maybe his little gestures of comical kindness were his way of saying they were friends.

Suddenly a rhythmic knocking on her door caught her attention and Hermione turned. "You ready to go yet?" Asked a very male voice from the prefect commons and Hermione smiled.

"Hold on just a minute more." Stuffing the folded parchment into her robe pocket, Hermione walked to the door and flung it open coming face to face with Ron.

"Harry's waiting out on the steps." He said. "He says Hagrid's real excited. It's been a while since he's seen us all."

"We just saw him the day before yesterday for COMC." Hermione replied. "How's Amber?" She asked and Ron blushed a deep crimson.

"She's all right. Why do you ask?" He inquired.

"I like to know how things are going with my friends, Ron. It's not like I was targeting you for an interrogation. You know, it used to be polite to inquire about your friend and those important to them." Hermione said defensively with a joking lilt to her voice.

"Right. I know for a fact that every question you ask has its own importance to you and you can't deny it." Ron said suspiciously and Hermione decided to continue this banter.

"Right, so now you claim to be clairvoyant? Or is it that you believe your powers of perception have evolved over night?" She asked and finally he broke into a smile and hugged her to his side.

"You're so cynical." He said and Hermione pushed him away playfully with a short laugh. As they reached the doors to the great hall, Hermione paused.

"Which steps?" Hermione asked.

"I dunno, I assumed he meant the ones outside." Ron said and Hermione nodded. Opening the door just a crack, Hermione stepped out into the warm air. As the fresh sunshine hit her, Hermione's stomach seized in guilt. She should be studying right now not romping about the grounds with her friends and the groundskeeper and his dog.

"Where is he?" She asked and Ron shrugged.

"Said he'd be here. Maybe he had something else he had to do before he met us here and that was why he sent me up to get you." Ron offered and Hermione nodded, accepting this as a possibility.

"You're probably right but if he doesn't show up within the next…" Hermione paused to look at her watch. "Ten minutes I'm going to have to go study. You should study as well, you know." She began and Ron groaned, cursing Harry under his breath many times throughout the next ten minutes as Hermione lectured him on schoolwork and how the NEWT's would decide what careers they would have and on and on.

Draco sat quietly in the Slytherin common room with his hands folded across his lap timidly and his mouth was turned down in an unreadable frown that gave the impression he would rather be elsewhere. But Crabbe didn't care what other plans Malfoy had, there were questions Crabbe needed answered and after planning this potion out for almost seven weeks he _would_ get _something_ out of the Slytherin. He needed to know what was going on behind those cold gray eyes.

The dark lord had told Crabbe not to trust Draco too easily for the memory of a weak and frivolous childhood bond, that all the Malfoys were very adept at the subtle game of deception and they were among the best in nerve and reaction control. If they were angry, you wouldn't know it until days later they were standing over your fallen body, wand pointed at your face.

That is why the dark lord told Crabbe that he had to strip away all inhibitions to lie and he saw only two possibilities in this: Veritaserum potion or a mind reading potion known as cordislector. Crabbe had chosen the former; it was much easier to obtain and took a lot less conniving.

Through everything he learned about it, Crabbe viewed the Draco thing as merely an equation and all equations had an answer. Yes, even the complicated, all-important, prince of darkness could be read and unraveled like a piece of loose thread. It just took the right ingredients and lucky for Vincent, they were all native to England. A few letters to his father and he was practically swimming in the main components of the potion five of which were not allowed on the Hogwarts grounds let alone inside the castle.

"Would you like a drink? I'm quite thirsty." Crabbe stated to Draco and Draco knew better than to refuse so he nodded, his stomach sinking like a rock. Crabbe had him trapped and by the smug look of triumph on his face, the fucking git knew it. "Norrington, go to the kitchens and obtain some tea. Draco and I will be having a very serious conversation so I would be very pleased if you insisted upon knocking before you reenter the chambers."

Crabbe's creature nodded and left the room. Draco noticed a small flick of Crabbe's hands and a look of recognition passed over the other boy's face. It was quite obvious to Draco that Norrington was ordered to add a little bit of an extra ingredient to his.

Minutes of silence passed and Crabbe cleared his throat fidgeting. "If you'll excuse me, I have to use the restroom." He said while rising and he turned and left, walking to the bathroom that Draco know lie down the corridor to the left.

Looking around in silent nostalgia, memories floated in and out of his head and he sighed. This wasn't the same place, it housed none of the niceties that he had become so accustomed to in the prefect dorms but besides that there was one thing this place was lacking and its absence left Draco slightly uneasy. Hermione… that's what this place was lacking. Hermione, he realized then, had become an even larger part of his life than he could have imagined.

Suddenly there was a loud rapping at the door and Draco watched as Norrington entered carrying a tray with two teacups atop it. Watching him approach, Draco could have laughed aloud. _How pathetic,_ he thought but as suddenly as the insult had entered his head did he retract it. _I used to be like that just as my father was before me. A chain of weakness…_ But something had changed, he reminded himself.

Norrington set the tray down with a small clink and Draco noticed how he rotated the tray a whole three hundred eighty degrees before leaving it be on the tabletop.

"You're dismissed." Draco said shortly as he stared upon the youth before him. He was obviously younger but just by looking at him, Draco could see that this Norrington was taller, darker, and more devious than even he had been at that age.

"I don't take orders from you." Norrington said and Draco gave him a look of such scathing reproach that the young man took a step back and retreated. "Tell Crabbe I'll be outside if he needs anything." The mere boy said, his tone full of loathing and Draco nodded.

Once Norrington was stationed outside of the room Draco took this opportunity to turn the tray back to the position in which it had been originally set on the table. Just as he pulled away and placed his hands politely on his lap, Crabbe emerged from the corridor, a smile on his face.

"Where's Norrington?" He asked upon reaching the table and having a suspicious look around (a common practice for all Slytherins.)

Draco gave a short shrug. "Outside. He said he needed some air." Draco replied and Crabbe nodded while taking his seat.

"Well, I would propose a toast to the survival of our lines but how seemingly inappropriate that would seem considering the death of your father just months ago." Crabbe said pointedly and Draco clenched his fist in his lap.

"Indeed… Well then, I propose a toast to our survival of another term." Draco suggested and Crabbe raised his eyebrows.

"First I would ask how you think you have survived…" Crabbe asked and Draco smiled, lifting his cup in front of him.

"I'm here and I'm alive as ever, ready to serve those who would serve me in return." Draco said and he took a quick swig of the tea. Immediately he felt a resonating warmth fill his throat replaced by the thick burning of mint along with another unnamed ingredient. As it slid in seemingly slow motion down his throat, Draco tried to cough up the substance but it refused to evade its set path through his esophagus and he felt helpless to control his reaction to the tea.

Opening his eyes he looked at Crabbe who was waiting expectantly for something to happen. Draco sputtered hoarsely and managed a smile as he shook his head from side to side. "Strong tea." He uttered and Crabbe nodded.

"The best for the best…"

Crabbe awaited some difference in himself, but found nothing had changed in the least. Looking upon Draco he found himself waiting impatiently for some thought of his to hurl itself at him. _Empty, utterly empty!_

"What's empty?" Draco asked and Crabbe was startled. Had he said it out loud?

"Nothing…" _Your head. Damn it! It didn't work._

"What didn't work?" Draco asked, genuinely puzzled. "Crabbe you're confusing me and I think you're confusing yourself as well."

"He took it." Crabbe murmured to himself and it suddenly hit Draco.

"You put something in that drink." Draco stated dryly and Crabbe looked horrified. He would fail his lord and Draco would know of this failure and he would learn from it… "What is it?"

"I think you know." _Norrington, that fucking bastard. I'll have his neck for this._ Crabbe grimaced angrily.

"It wasn't his fault at all, you see." Draco said, suddenly confident. He had gained the upper-hand in this encounter. "He set the drinks down and I switched them." Draco put it simply and Crabbe hit the table as hard as he could.

"Why the _fuck_ would you do that?" Crabbe asked and Draco smiled ironically. This was quite the predicament old Crabbe had gotten them both into. Whether it was Crabbe's ignorance or Draco's own innate distrust of Slytherins in general that had led to the current situation, it was something that they both faced.

"To put it simply, I don't trust you" Draco spat. "That _and_ your little minion was a bit too careless with his discretion. I, personally, find it hard to ignore such blatant untrustworthiness." Expression full of mockery, Draco took another drink from the cup and this gesture was obviously too much for Crabbe.

"Norrington!" Crabbe shouted so loud that Draco could hear the tearing stress in his vocal chords.

The doors to the common room opened abruptly and Norrington entered, walking swiftly and efficiently towards the table.

"Yes, Crabbe?" Norrington inquired, obviously distraught at the thought of the way he had been summoned.

"Do not give him reason to suspect anything odd is going on. Were these not my exact words?" Crabbe snarled at Norrington as if he were a speck on the bottom of his shoe that was tarnishing its appearance.

"Y… Yes. That was your instruction to me…" Norrington Stuttered and Draco turned to Crabbe.

"Don't blame him for your incompetence when it comes to choosing reliable servants." Draco said slimily and Crabbe nodded.

"Get out of my sight." Crabbe snapped in a biting tone to Norrington and the boy knew better than to disobey. "Get out!"

Once Norrington had left the room, Draco read Crabbe's thoughts as easily as if he were saying them aloud.

"To answer that I would have to first go into detail about why I have tried to stay distant from your "crew"." Draco replied to the unasked question and Crabbe growled under his breath. "I fear you underestimate me, my old friend." Draco said in a cutting tone that made Crabbe ball his hands into fists that on other occasion might have already found themselves an easy target.

"I've learned not to do that. That is the whole reason I did _this_." He said gesturing to the table. "I spent almost eight weeks making the potion and the better part of that figuring out how I would do it down to the very last meticulous bit of detail I could include." Crabbe replied. "I even planned where I would take our dialogue."

"I'm guessing those plans didn't include me taking the potion." Draco said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice and Crabbe shrugged. "I should go. I have some studying to do. NEWT's are right around the corner you know." Draco stood.

"Where do your loyalties lie, Draco?" Crabbe asked outright and Draco shrugged turning away.

"When has anyone ever known the answer to that question?' Draco asked. "Not even my father knew the answer to that question and we all know how much control he had over my life. Notice that I stress the word _had, _Crabbe." Draco spat. "I had enough of my father controlling and dictating every move I made when he was alive and it'd be plain stupid of me to hand it over to someone new when I have had so little time to test my new freedoms. Tell that to Voldemort."

"You know I can't." Crabbe said and Draco laughed.

"Tell him what you want then. Tell him I've once again joined your ranks." Draco said in feigned reverence and Crabbe didn't miss the implied sarcasm in his words.

"You'll be very sorry when you realize what an opportunity you have missed because of your hasty decision." Crabbe said as Draco approached the exit.

"I haven't missed an opportunity, Crabbe, _you_ have and in saying that I would like to bring another point to the table. I never said anything about making a decision. I merely wish to postpone my passing judgment on any set course right away." He said slyly, his hand on the doorknob.

"I guess we'll all be left to wait for you, then." Crabbe said. "The dark lord's interest in you is not a passing thing, Draco, _that_ you need to understand. He will destroy anything and everything that stands between you and him and he will not wait to make his move against you. Decisions need to be made swiftly and permanently." Crabbe said and Draco scoffed.

_That little snake is feeding me advice through that forked tongue!_ But even as this thought passed through his mind, Draco could sense the truth in Crabbe's coldly calculated words. They were meant to sting, meant to scare, but most of all they were meant to scare Draco.

Draco walked through the door and felt a wave of foreboding pass through him in the form of a shiver. Passing through his spine like a spiny shock, Draco stepped through the arched door making a promise to never return to this place and if he did, let everything he held dear be dead.

_That could easily be arranged…_ Said the voice in the back of Draco's awareness and for the first time in weeks, Draco could see clearly the face of Lord Voldemort staring back at him. The words in his mind had come from the dark lord and the thought brought the unpleasant images from his dream back.

_Snape is so cute…_ Draco nearly jumped as the thought hit his mind and suddenly he was under attack from all sides. Voice after voice was filling his mind until he could only recognize bits and pieces of intelligible thoughts.

_Where is he?_

_I cannot believe she wore that today…_

_That stupid bitch! McGonagall is going to pay for that detention_

_Fuck! I didn't do my charms…_

_I'd like to see what's under that skirt_

Looking around, Draco realized what the cause of this barrage was. He was in the great hall and it was almost dinner time. There were hundreds of students in the hall and all their thoughts were being channeled to him.

_Draco looks good today…_ Thought a passing girl and Draco grinned. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all. That was until a Hufflepuff boy walking past was thinking the exact same thing… Thoroughly disturbed, Draco made his way as quickly as he could from the great hall up towards the library where there were no people and where he would try to do some studying. Try, of course, was the operative word…

Hermione looked at herself in her body mirror and sighed. Pulling back her frizzy hair into an attempted pony-tail she groaned loudly. _Why am I even bothering?_ Grabbing a brush from her side table she attempted to run it through her tangled tresses but only ended up feeling worse than she had before she had tried to clean up her appearance.

Walking to her bed she paused. "Where are you Crookshanks?" She asked the little picture she often left on her bed to remind her of her lost cat. It had been so long that Hermione had given up on Crookshanks coming back. Either he was happy elsewhere with new owners, or he was…

Hermione shook her head from side to side trying to dismiss the thought and threw her book bag over her shoulder. Throwing one more glance at her mirror she straightened her skirt and blouse, growled menacingly at the mirror and pointedly tossed a cloak over it.

As Hermione walked through the corridors towards the library she wondered at herself and her sudden self-consciousness. She figured it was the female inside her begging to be released but Hermione refused to even consider letting that happen.

Making her way through the maze of tables she had once known so well, Hermione walked straight to the back her eyes downcast. "Eros." She uttered and the blue shield around the room dissipated and she was admitted. Throwing up the force field behind her, Hermione slammed the door, leaning her back against the door and let out an anguished sigh.

Walking over to the documents she grabbed her folder and looked through her work. As she shuffled through the papers she realized how close they were to being able to test the actual spell. The though both attracted and repelled her.

On one hand, they would make the greatest discovery in Magic's history and on the other, if the counter spell didn't work, one of them would die. The prospect of the former one was what weighed most heavily on her mind though she knew Draco felt the opposite.

Taking her place at the table, Hermione set all of her stuff down on the tabletop and leaned forward, inspecting the previous document she had been working on.

Not after five minutes of silent concentration did Hermione hear the door open and once again, self-consciousness made her tense. _I wonder if he'll notice I'm having a bad day,_ she thought to herself and Draco smiled at her as he walked behind her and grabbed his folder.

"How was your day, Hermione?" He asked as he took the seat across from her and laid out his documents in his meticulous system that only he knew.

"Perfect." _Terrible…_

"What happened?" Draco asked, his eyes full of concern and Hermione was taken aback.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked and Draco shrugged, displaying just a hint of discomfort.

"Something must have happened to make your day so perfect." He replied as he began marking documents off and replacing them into the folder. Hermione wondered then what marks he put on his papers and what they were for. "I like to know when a certain string ends so that I can keep track of exactly the one I'm on."

"That's clever." She commented. _He won't even look at me, I must look dreadful…_ Hermione bit her lip and sat down, tears burning behind her eyes.

"I saw you walking over to Hagrid's hut today, you look really pretty with your hair pulled back, you know…" Hermione's eyes shot up to meet his and he gave her a smile that said more to her than his words had.

"How was your meeting with Crabbe?" Hermione asked suddenly, wanting to hear about someone else's horrible day. _Why do I care so much about what he thinks?_

"It didn't go too bad…" Draco began. "But seriously, tell me about your day." He said as he made a few new marks alongside the old ones.

_I realized I'm fat, ugly, and my cat is dead._ "Nothing out of the ordinary to tell really. I'm just glad school got over when it did. I don't think I could stand another minute with McGonagall looking over my shoulder for the first opportunity to use me as her _prime example_." Hermione said with a smile as she brushed a strand of unruly brown hair out of her face.

"It's a compliment to be noticed." He said and Hermione felt the oddest sense that he knew what she was thinking. The way his mind was working was… unnatural. He seemed too sensitive… too receptive.

"For you… You like the attention. For once I just want to sit in a class and space out without worrying whether my friends will need my notes to study before the end of term exam because they were too busy having a good time to take accurate notes of their own…" She ranted and Draco frowned without looking up.

"Let them take their exams without your notes." he said coldly and Hermione ceased all movement.

"What?" She asked.

"Let them learn to take their own notes." Draco repeated and Hermione shook her head.

"No… I… I didn't say anything." She said fearfully a twinge of curiosity in her voice and Draco looked suddenly shocked.

"The look on your face… I thought-"

"All right, spill." Hermione said shortly and Draco smiled a smile that made her stomach churn.

"My little Slytherin buddy was planning a very clever trick on me, you see." Draco began. "It would have worked had I not suspected something and I took a drink of what was specially made for Crabbe. He had planned to drink cordislector so he could read my mind and I-"

"So you can read my mind?" Hermione asked suddenly and Draco tried to read behind the expression on her face but all he could see was blatant anger.

"It's… fading. I-"

"So you knew everything I was thinking and I… You made a fool of me, using my unasked questions for your amusement." Hermione said, her face suddenly flushed red and an embarrassed look came over her face.

"That's not why-"

"Save it." She said, turning silent as she looked down at her notes again and currently she didn't care what his stupid system was.

"Are you angry with me?" Draco asked and Hermione looked at him her eyes tearing at him with their unspoken rage.

"You're the one that reads minds." She snarled. Suddenly she gathered her papers together, slammed her folder shut, and replaced it on the shelf angrily. Grabbing her bag she walked to the door.

Draco reached out, suddenly desperate, and grabbed her arm, and for what he was sure wouldn't be the last time, he felt her slip from his grasp.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid!_ Draco cursed himself as he repeatedly struck his forehead. Suddenly standing, he let the rage he had let sit dormant inside of him for the past three months boil over and he hit the table moving it more then a foot forward. With one large sweep of his arm he sent parchment and ink flying every which way ruining his perfect order, something that would set them both back weeks. "There's no fucking winning!" He shouted to himself and the voice in the back of his mind decided to share its piece.

_That's how it is with love…_It said and Draco punched growled, hitting the stone wall next to him so hard that he felt his knuckles crunch under the major blow. Groaning, Draco cradled his hand against him as he threw his weight against the wall, panting. "It's not love when you're never happy." He murmured as he sank to the floor.

Leaning his head against his knees, the confused Slytherin allowed the blood from his injured hand to leak down over his perfectly pressed clothing. _What did it matter?_ He asked himself. "She'll just make me bleed again…" He whispered. _Fuck it, fuck it, fuck it…_


	25. Don't Be Silly, Mudbloods Don't Fly

This chapter had a real nice flow and I think it turned out well and had theaffect I wanted it to. This is my second update in like six hours but... I cheated. I finished 24 like a week ago, but I wanted to make it allbetter so I waited until I had most of this chappie done so here you go! Enjoy...hopefully. And I would like to give a great shout out to all the people who have reveiwed. You do wonders for me and my ego as well as give meareas of my style that need to be improved. NEW! Sorry for not clarifying it but the original chaser has disappeared and they need a new one. Somewhere between editing and posting, that little peice was lost. I am very sorry.

Chapter 25: Don't Be Silly, Mudbloods Don't Fly

Hermione looked at the crumpled piece of parchment and despite an hour of reflection she was still angered by the slightly tilted handwriting that flowed so neatly across the page.

"Why does he make me so angry?" Hermione asked and her kelltor walked over from the corner, jumped onto her bed, and attempted to snuggle as close to Hermione as he could get. "I mean, logically it doesn't make any sense. One minute we are fine with one another and the next he does something stupid and I can't stand the thought of him!" She practically shouted at Auru.

"I know, it's not your fault, Auru." Hermione cooed, petting the kelltor's head softly as she inspected the animal's coat. "But if you had any ideas, you'd share right?" Hermione asked the creature who cocked his head in confusion and licked her hand almost carelessly but Hermione knew better. This kelltor had an agenda.

"You're hungry too?" She asked Auru who barked loudly in response. "I'm hungry too. Anger devours one's energy." Hermione patted Auru's head once more before standing and Auru gave a whine. "What is it?" Hermione asked and Auru made his wishes made clear by wagging his tail. "No, you can't come with… People don't like the idea of kelltors running around the castle as it is. I'm not going to risk Dumbledore having to take action against you."

Auru walked to the corner edge of the bed, turned his back on Hermione, and sat, dwelling. "You'll be happy to see me when I'm back with a plate full of Hogwarts' fattiest bacon, mark my words." Hermione smiled at the creature, which only rose its nose in petty bitterness.

"I'll be back." Hermione promised and she turned to walk out of the room. Running her hand along the smooth walls, Hermione made her way leisurely through the corridors.

Looking up every once in a while she took the time to notice portraits of former workers at Hogwarts and others of people she didn't recognize. As she did this she couldn't help but wonder if some of these held a secret passage or a portrait hole that one could climb through. She knew for a fact that harry possessed a map that displayed every secret Hogwarts had including some Filch himself did not know about. The Marauder's Map, he had called it, and it had been made by Harry's own father.

Though it was in some ways helpful, Hermione had to wonder if Harry was using it for good or evil. She had noticed over the past few months that Harry seemed to know more about the school than any of them could possibly know. There had also been strange mutterings from Ron about Harry getting up at two in the morning to use the bathroom and he didn't come back sometimes a whole hour later.

Considering this thought Hermione wondered where he went at night. Certainly not to Ginny. He would never disrespect the Weasley's by dishonoring their daughter in such a way. The Weasleys were like family to Harry, the only one he had ever known. And Ron! Never would he hurt Ron like that, Hermione knew. But this train of thought gave no answers that Hermione was looking for.

Turning the corner, Hermione came suddenly face to face with Heather Holley. "Hermione!" Heather exclaimed. "I just saw Draco, what on earth happened? His hand's all messed up and he refuses to speak a word of anything to me."

"We had an argument, that's all." Hermione said vaguely while she shifted her weight from her right leg to her left. "Not that it's any of your business." She added, clearly uncomfortable with the Slytherin's eyes gazing through her.

"It bloody well _is_ my business." Heather snarled, matching Hermione's tone, which displayed a certain distrust for her. "It must have been one hell of an argument," Heather observed smugly as if she had the right to talk about it. "It looks as though Draco's shattered his knuckles into a thousand pieces."

Hermione's eyes opened wide and she felt a pang in the pit of her stomach, but on the outside she rolled her eyes nonchalantly and placed her hands on her hips. "What Draco does in his spare time is his deal. I can't do anything about it." Hermione said, allowing some of her frustration to flow into her voice.

"How wrong that statement sounds coming from you, Hermione." Heather said with a smirk as she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned lightly against the wall, her slender frame fitting into the small corner. "I could imagine something like that coming from Weasley, even Potter, but not from you considering." Heather finished and Hermione could not miss the laughter in the girl's voice.

"Considering what?" Hermione asked, suddenly angry again. "That we work together for over forty something hours a week? That we have developed a common ground and have become friends?" Hermione spat, her tense stance suggested hostility that her voice could not help but convey.

"Friends? Is that what you are?" Heather asked, the laughter still in her voice.

"Yes, friends." Hermione said defensively wondering whether or not this Slytherin knew as much as she let on. "Draco has made perfectly clear how he feels about me and I have the uttermost respect for that."

"Oh, has he?" Heather asked. "Because according to Draco, he can't tell you how he feels." She said, cutting to the chase and Hermione was taken aback by the truth she heard in Heather's voice.

"It's great to know he feels comfortable talking to _you_ about things that involve _me_." Hermione snarled. "After all, why should I know what the hell's going on? I'm only bloody involved!"

"First off, he would talk to you about it if you'd actually listen when he tried to broach the subject and second off, what the hell's the matter with you?" Hermione cringed as Heather pushed herself roughly out of the corner and leaned forward, accentuating every word. "It's not just you here, Hermione, and if that is what you think then I know Draco would do better off elsewhere."

"Excuse me, this whole Draco having feelings thing, is a little new for me." Hermione said. "We were enemies, now we're friends, and friends is all we will ever be." She finished, knowing this to be the truth.

"Did you bother telling Draco that?" Heather asked.

"That's a ridiculous question that doesn't even deserve an answer and you should know that." Hermione said and Heather shrugged.

"Then we're done here. But before I leave you to wallow in your self-importance I would like you to know one simple fact." Heather said holding up her index finger to exaggerate her point. "Every single person in Draco's life has given up on him," She began, brandishing her finger at Hermione. "He was born and grew up alone. He's still alone and if what you just said is true, then he is destined to die alone and if _you_ were Draco, how would that thought make _you_ feel?" With that said, Heather pushed roughly past Hermione, leaving all of her doubts exposed.

With a frown, Hermione leaned against the wall, sighing deeply. She felt tears stinging behind her eyes but she refused to let them fall. _How was it any of Heather's bloody business? _Hermione asked herself.

Walking towards the great hall, Hermione refused to answer that question let alone allow her mind to dwell on it. It was a stupid question. Of course Draco knew how things were. He knew better than she did all the reasons why they wouldn't work… not together anyway. That had never even been a possibility!

Walking into the great hall, Hermione's eyes wandered, looking for three specific Gryffindors. Upon seeing them, she marched forth like a soldier entering the heat of battle. In a sense, this was quite the fitting analogy.

"Hey you guys." Hermione said as she sat, taking her old seat next to Ginny.

"I'm surprised to see you. NEWT's are in little less than two months and you're actually wandering about without a book in your hand or quill behind your ear?" Ron asked.

"People are going to talk, you know." Harry added and Hermione laughed, trying to shove the thoughts of Gryffindors and Slytherins to the back of her mind.

"Hey, Hermione, there're Quidditch try-outs next week," Ginny began, interrupting the banter. "You want to come with to watch the try outs? The team could use your support and maybe you could give it a try." Hermione's instinct was to say no, but upon asking herself why she shouldn't, her mind changed.

"I'm not much on a broom so I'll just come and watch. If I support those two it would be terrible if I didn't do the entire team the same courtesy wouldn't it?." Ginny smiled while Harry and Ron frowned playfully. Harry's lips fell into a pout and Ginny cooed gently, fondly rubbing his shoulders.

Ruffling Harry's hair, Ginny leaned forward, planting an obviously affectionate kiss on Harry's cheek and suddenly Hermione wondered if she had been wrong before about Harry and Ginny. "Don't worry about it," Ginny whispered. "She's just jealous of your talent." She finished and Ron spewed dinner all over everyone's food.

"Ginny, have some dignity, woman! You're not a harlot!" He coughed. "And Harry, I'd appreciate if you and my sister didn't go at it while I'm trying to eat my meal." He said while wiping his mouth in disgust. Pushing his plate forward he refused to eat another bite.

Harry, Ginny, and Hermione were laughing hysterically at the look on Ron's face when suddenly there was a loud bang from the front of the hall.

The laughter died very suddenly as they watched Draco Malfoy enter the great hall, hand sloppily bandaged, and he took a seat at the Slytherin table. Looking around, Hermione had a flashback from the beginning of the year. The same tension between their houses had arisen again and everything seemed to be back to the way it had been at the beginning of the year. Gryffindors with Gryffindors and Slytherins with Slytherins…

There was a not so subtle difference though, Hermione admitted. Draco was not the same to her now as he had been then. Now he was a real person, someone who had fears, weaknesses, and most of all he had a very human quality that before she had taken as arrogance and undeserved pride.

"I think I'm going to start sleeping in the Gryffindor dormitories again. The prefect dormitories are too… crowded." Hermione said quietly, forcing herself to look away.

"Maybe you should talk to Ginny about it." Harry whispered and Hermione's eyes met his, a question in her glance. He knew then, and that meant Ron did as well. Hermione nodded, knowing full well that she wouldn't talk to Ginny about it at all. She knew better than anyone how Ginny felt about Slytherins, let alone this one in particular.

Minutes later, Hermione let out a monstrous yawn and stood. She was exhausted and she was sure Auru wouldn't be too pleased with her longer than normal dinner. "I'm going to head up to bed." She said and gathered a plate of food for Auru.

"Are you sleeping in the dorms tonight?" Ginny asked while taking a final swig of pumpkin juice, wiping her face on her sleeve.

Hermione shook her head. "No, I have to pack everything up and it's too much of a hassle for tonight." She said, knowing there was another reason entirely. She wanted a chance to talk to Draco. What Heather had said had made her start to think.

"I'll see you tomorrow then. We have a lot of catching up to do, you and I." Ginny called after Hermione as she turned to leave and Hermione nodded.

"Goodnight." She called behind her.

_If she comes, she comes. If she doesn't she doesn't. Nothing lost…_ Draco sat in the prefect commons waiting. For what, he wasn't sure. He knew that she was angry… no, they were angry at each other. Once again, Draco didn't know why.

Draco suddenly longed for who he had been before that detention. But that seemed like ages ago, like it was too far out of reach for him to even think about it. It felt like years ago, that night…

"Everything that happens in life shapes who you are to become…" Reminded the soft voice of Narcissa Malfoy.

"Shut up." He said.

"If you don't let the bad in with the good you become complacent, like your father. He took no risks, he played it safe with Voldemort rather than do the right thing and be crushed. He wanted to do the crushing. You're not like your father-"

"Yes I am!" Draco shouted at himself. _I am like my father. I'm a Spitting fucking image of the bastard._

Suddenly the door to the common room opened and Hermione walked through it. For just a second his anger was gone, but then it returned stronger than ever.

Walking towards him slowly, Hermione set a plate on the table and Draco ground his teeth, wondering at her calmness. As she moved to the right to sit down, the light from the fire reached him and, seeing his hand, she gasped.

"Jesus Draco! What did you…" She began, reaching forward. Draco pulled his injured hand away and she did not object. "I talked to Heather, she's worried about you." She said quietly and Draco nodded stiffly. He noted how she mentioned Heather's name and not her own though it was obvious how she felt.

"Just leave me alone." He said, letting his voice take on its callous quality.

"Draco, don't be angry with me… I've had a lot on my mind, but you probably know that." She said, making a reference to the cordislector he had taken.

"I'm not angry, Granger." He spat, forcing the emotion from his voice. "I'm indifferent." Draco smiled his cold smile that didn't quite reach his eyes and watched in fascination as a look of recognition, then solace passed over Hermione's face. He knew this was mean but at this point he could care less.

"Why?" She asked.

"Because, _Granger_," He emphasized the use of her surname. "I am tired of caring." He spat, his voice betraying his disgust at himself. "I didn't tell Heather to say a damn word to you so wipe that filthy look off your face." He snarled viciously and he watched as her face move quickly from hurt to anger.

"I never implied that she did." Hermione said softly, making the gut-wrenching feeling of guilt worsen, which made him even angrier.

"Don't play innocent." He said even though _he_ didn't quite know what he was referring to.

"What are you talking about, Draco?" Hermione asked, her chocolate brown eyes showing exactly how she felt: hurt, angry, and above all, confused.

"I… I dunno, I just want to be left alone, all right?" Draco said quietly and Hermione made no move to leave. "Just get the fuck out and leave me alone. You've said enough and I've said enough. Now go, before I say something I regret." Draco snapped and Hermione stood, tears in her eyes. He watched in inner horror as a single tear fell down her face and she bit her lip, trying to hold back hurt she knew she felt.

"Isn't it a bit too late for that?" Hermione whispered as she turned and left. Grabbing the plate, she hurried through the doorway and he could not help but feel some relief at this.

The sunlight filled the Quidditch pitch through moving clouds and Hermione let out a sigh. She had to admit, sitting on the bench was a lot less fun than she had imagined.

For the past hour and a half, Hermione had watched in polite interest as Gryffindor after Gryffindor took the sky in an attempt to woo Harry.

After Harry told the fifteenth Gryffindor to hit the ground, Ginny had gotten very frustrated.

"It's not the nationals, Harry, lighten up." She had shouted as the team touched ground for a small break. "What was wrong with Steven?" She asked, throwing her broom over her shoulder.

Ron looked at his watch, a grim expression on his face, he had planned to meet Amber twenty minutes ago. "Yeah, mate, Steven wasn't half bad."

"Not half bad _isn't_ what I'm looking for, you two. I'm looking for excellent!" He replied enthusiastically. "The chasers are the ones that score the points and we need those points!" He exclaimed.

"Hermione, tell him to be reasonable." Ginny groaned.

"I personally agree." Hermione said slowly, surprised that what she said was true. "I'm glad Harry wants to make the team exceptional."

"But-"

"Hey, what the hell are _they_ doing here?" Asked the other chaser, Seamus and Hermione's eyes flitted to the other side of the field where seven figures in green Quidditch robes approached.

"I dunno, but I'll get this fixed up in a hurry." Harry said, gritting his teeth. "They're not pulling that professor Snape shit this time. We booked the field three weeks in advance." Harry mumbled as he walked forward to greet the gaggle of Slytherins in the middle of the field.

"Well, if it isn't little Potter and his team of misfits." Said Draco as he leaned laxly on his broom. Hermione noticed how he favored his left hand and held his right one close to his chest.

"Malfoy, as great as it is for me to see you here, _we_ have the pitch today. We're holding try-outs." Harry said slowly, as if Draco couldn't understand English.

"Well, this parchment says otherwise." Draco drawled and Harry ripped the piece of parchment Malfoy was now brandishing proudly like a flag.

"Meritless…" harry spat. "Doesn't even have a signature." He said, thrusting it back into Draco's outstretched hand.

"Maybe so, but I _can_ have it signed by Snape in ten minutes, why waste the time?" Draco asked and Harry clenched his fists. He had been so stressed out during try-outs that Hermione doubted he had the self-restraint to deny himself first blood in this fight.

"What do you want?" Harry asked.

"I want to practice." Draco said. "Just like you."

"But the difference _is_ Malfoy, that I booked the pitch three weeks ago and you come out here today with a piece of parchment not even signed by a first year and expect me to pack up and leave?" Harry asked, a smile in his voice.

"I was hoping we could compromise." Draco said lightly. "You get half the pitch and I get half the pitch for my team. That way, we all win."

"I don't think you wanted a compromise." Harry stated and from the look on Draco's face, Hermione didn't doubt it.

"You're right… Maybe we wanted a little friendly competition before our match next week." Said Heather and Hermione's eyes wandered to the slender Irish girl, her eyes reduced to slits as she watched the girl lightly flip her hair around her shoulders. _So she played Quidditch as well,_ Hermione thought. _If she can do it, I certainly can._

"Why not?" Hermione asked, suddenly standing and Draco looked at her in disbelief.

"I didn't know she was trying out." Said Heather in a hushed voice. "Is she trying out?"

"Don't be silly, mudbloods don't fly." Draco smirked and Ron lunged forward.

"That is the last time you'll be calling anyone a filthy name, Malfoy." Ron said, whipping out his wand from the fold in his robes. "You have no respect-"

"It's all right, honestly Ron." Hermione said, grabbing his cloak and pulling him beside her and he gave her a questioning glance. "We'll just have to show the lot of them that mudbloods _can_ fly." Hermione turned to the Steven, who had just been denied a spot on the Quidditch team. "Can I borrow that?" She asked.

"It's a Nimbus, have you ridden a lot?" Steven asked and Hermione guffawed. "All right then, as long as you can handle it." The seventh year said, handing it over hesitantly. He had never even seen Hermione give a second glance to a broom let alone ride one. Harry could have said the same except for their first flying lesson during first year. But she seemed confident enough.

"All right, Granger," Draco began as he leapt with ease on the bottom ring of his broom and it slowly rose upwards in an almost graceful motion, keeping him upright. "Show us you can fly." He swung his other leg over the side and sped up into the sky and Hermione gulped.

"Just don't panic." Harry said and Ron nodded.

"Focus on getting it in the air and from there… you've got the rest." Ron said.

"What exactly does a chaser do?" Hermione asked and Harry groaned.

"This isn't a very good idea, you could get hurt." Ginny said but Hermione brushed him away when she tried to take the broom.

"I need to learn some time right?" Hermione asked, her heart beating wildly in her chest. "All I have to do is calm myself and remember what Madam Hooch taught me…" She said.

Laying the broom on the ground, Hermione held her hand directly over it and closed her eyes, concentrating on one thought and one thought alone. "_Up!_" She closed her fingers around the pole of the broom and grasped tightly. _Yes!_ She thought excitedly. Mounting it, Hermione opened her eyes and readied herself for what was about to take place.

As soon as she seated herself she felt anxious to get going and as if the broom read her thoughts and her mood it zoomed suddenly into the air and she let out a scream as she tried to hold on.

"You all right, Hermione?" Asked Ginny who was suddenly riding beside her and Hermione groaned. But then the broom leveled and all the turbulence Hermione could feel was small buffets of air. "Not too bad, eh?" She asked.

"No…" Hermione uttered in wonder as an odd feeling of pride unfurled in her chest. _She had done the impossible!_ "Not at all as bad as I thought it would be."

"Wait until they release the bludgers!" Ginny said with a smile. "It won't be so great then." The smile on Hermione's face faded and Ginny shrugged at the frightened look on Hermione's face. "Fact of the game, Hermione. I'm not going to lie and say there are no bludgers. Just keep your head about you." She suggested. "I'm going to go meet with the other beater and figure out a game plan to protect you, seeing as it's your first time and all." Ginny sped off and Hermione suddenly felt utterly alone.

Looking around, Hermione made out many shapes in the air. Seven Slytherins and seven Gryffindors. Things weren't going to turn out well for her, she realized. Everyone on the field had at least some experience. "What have I gotten myself into?" Hermione asked herself under her breath.

"A lot of trouble." Said a very familiar and unwelcome male voice behind her. "What are you doing, Hermione? I know for a fact you've never played a game of Quidditch in your life." Draco said and Hermione turned to face him.

"Mind your own business, Malfoy. I wouldn't be up here unless I wanted to be." Hermione replied curtly making sure Draco could not miss the snarl in her words.

"I personally don't want to scrape you off of the pitch but then again, I guess I wouldn't be the one doing the scraping, would I?" He asked with a laugh that Hermione remembered all too well.

"Hey Malfoy!" Shouted Seamus and Hermione turned her head. "Don't you have a ball to look for? It looks like you may be missing more than one." He shouted and Hermione was grateful for the interruption.

"Why don't you go marry your cousin." Hermione heard shouted from below and Hermione looked down to see many of the Gryffindors who had tried out watching from below with rapt attention.

Meeting Draco's eyes, Hermione saw a blush form on his face and he swerved carelessly the other way and torpedoed to the other side of the field on his broom. Now he was merely a blur of green robes and, as Hermione reminded herself as she calmed her breathing, a blur of green robes she could deal with…

"Ready for this?" Ask Seamus with a smile as he patted Hermione on the back and Hermione gulped, nodding slowly.

"As ready as I'll ever be. Any pointers?" She asked, more ready than ever to learn. With a smile she realized it may be too late.

"Watch out for the bludgers. They're your main threat." Seamus said, bobbing up and down on his broom with the wind currents. "Also, the quaffle is pretty light, so don't over compensate when you get it. Your broom's damn fast so you shouldn't have to worry about outchasing them." He paused, looking at Hermione. "You've never been on a broom before." He stated, a smirk forming at the corner of his mouth and Hermione nodded. There was no use in lying any more. "You're much braver than I thought you were." Turning the other way, he flew towards the ground and waited for her to follow. "This is your chance, let's go touch down."

Hermione's heart pounded as she waited on the ground, her legs shaking like jelly. "Who calls?" Heather asked Draco who shrugged.

"Potter?"

"Honestly, do you lot not know how to flip a coin?" Harry asked, digging a silver sickle from his pocket. "Call it in the air." He made a move to flip the coin when Heather guffawed.

"Call what in the air?" She asked and Harry stopped. Hermione smiled. It was ridiculous how much the wizarding world needed to learn about the muggle one.

"Heads or tails." Harry sighed. "If it lands on the face side, the person who called heads, wins and if it lands on the tail side, the person who calls tales wins." Harry explained.

"Right," Draco spat. "Get on with it, then."

Harry flipped the coin and called out, "Tails!"

"Looks like it's heads." Heather drawled and Harry nodded his head disappointedly.

"I guess you call it then Malfoy." Harry said resignedly and Heather whispered something in Draco's ear. Hermione felt her face grow hot as she watched the overly friendly display and despite not being the type to get jealous, Hermione could have sworn she felt the seeds of envy growing every moment they were on the same field.

"Mount!" heather shouted and they all lifted their legs and straddled their brooms. Heather threw a nod to Draco and Hermione realized suddenly that Heather was goading her on purpose. Well, she was going to get what she wanted. _I can show her…_Hermione thought as she tried to calm herself.

"Grip the broom handle any harder and you're going to snap it in half." Whispered Seamus and Hermione looked down. Her knuckles had turned white and she loosened her grip. "That-a-girl." He said with a wink and Hermione felt herself un-tense. Just another adventure…

"Go!" Heather shouted and Hermione kicked off so hard she felt herself propelled feet above where she had wanted to be.

"I got the quaffle!" Seamus shouted and Hermione swerved to follow his voice. Weaving in and out of other players, Hermione followed his voice. "They've released the bludgers, be care-" Hermione gasped as Seamus' broom was struck and he flipped over the front. Hermione dove and reached out uncertainly for the quaffle. With the light, red ball in her grasp, everything she was doing just suddenly felt natural.

Hermione ducked as she saw a brown ball headed straight for her face and rolled with her broom to avoid the next one. Looking around, she saw Seamus remount and kick off. "Move! The goal, Hermione! Make a goal!" He shouted, waving his arms frantically and Hermione came back to life.

"Right." She said to herself and forced the broom forward towards the three giant goals at the end of the field. Leaning forward she made the broom go so fast that she could feel her hair whipping around her face, lashing her shoulders and the back of her neck. But her adrenaline was rushing now and she was prepared to die before she gave into the fear.

Coming to an abrupt, incomplete stop, Hermione threw the quaffle as fast as she could and watched as it headed straight for the goal to the right. But the keeper, a seventh year Slytherin she didn't know, blocked it almost without thought and threw it to their chaser. Hermione turned, knowing that she didn't have time to mope. She needed to stay on the other chasers like glue. It was imperative.

Hermione moved lower as she caught up with the chaser and waited. Keeping her eyes peeled for gray, she pulled up sharply on the broom to avoid a bludger and the chaser next to her was not nearly as fortunate. Hermione heard the sickening crack of breaking bones as the Slytherin cried out, dropping the quaffle.

Without a second thought, Hermione lunged, taking the quaffle in her arms. Speeding over the field, Hermione felt at peace despite the pace at which everything around her was moving.

She was once again racing towards the goal when she heard Seamus shout, "Pass, I'm open!" Hermione looked to her right and threw the quaffle, aiming slightly forward. She did this with one hand since she felt very uncomfortable relinquishing all control.

Hermione watched as Seamus scored and threw her hands excitedly in the air, forgetting she was still moving forward at a breakneck speed. Her vision blacked out as she hit a very hard object of green and she felt not a single thing as she fell, spiraling through the air, broom right behind her. Something latched onto her arm and then… _Thwack!_ Sweet numbness…

"Well thank goodness and you're awake!" Exclaimed a high cheery voice and Hermione sat up, growling in pain. "No, no, no, miss Granger. Lay back down. That was quite a fall and I've mended more than a few bones on you. They need time to settle." Hermione did as she was told and leaned back, trying to ignore the pain in her side, the pain in her arm, and the throbbing, aching pain in her skull.

"What happened?" She groaned and Madam Pomfrey walked into her range of vision.

"You were playing quite the game of Quidditch I hear and you had a straight on collision with Mr. Malfoy. That one didn't fair much better than you." She stated as if this would make sense to Hermione.

"How did _that_ happen?" She asked more to herself than to Madam Pomfrey, but the nurse offered her opinion readily.

"Mr. Potter said you weren't paying attention." Suddenly Hermione remembered.

"Malfoy?" She asked as she recognized the name.

"Yes, he's right over there. Quite a few bones broken on him as well but no one was there to break _his_ fall." Madam Pomfrey said, a tinge of sadness in her voice. "Fell forty three and a half feet straight down. Unconscious by the time he hit the ground, I was told."

"Oh my…" Hermione uttered, craning her neck as far as the sore muscles would allow considering her injuries. "He's going to be all right… right?" Hermione asked.

"Oh yes, but it seems as though he had an injury before he fell and it doesn't look to me like he'll be playing Quidditch for a while." Madam Pomfrey informed Hermione kindly. "He should have come straight to me for mending, but that's in the past. He's got a few weeks of rough healing on that hand and wrist to do before he can even consider picking up another broom and I will tell Professor Snape as much."

"Perfect." Hermione sighed. Draco loved Quidditch and he was going to be absolutely pissed to know that she had taken that away to add to everything else she had obviously done wrong in his eyes…

"I'm going to give you a sleeping drought and you'll be up and about in two hours. That's all the time your bones need to set but you're doing yourself no good worrying about _him_." She said, handing Hermione a cup of green liquid that smelled of something fierce. Hermione cringed. "You have a lot to be thankful for." Hermione plugged her nose as she downed it and immediately felt it take affect. "If Mr. Malfoy hadn't caught you, who knows what would have happened and where you would have landed."

_What?_ Hermione attempted to ask but it suddenly seemed as though she had forgotten how to shape the words on her lips. She felt the shadows at the end of her mind creeping slowly towards the center and she gave into more sleep.


	26. A Message from Salazar

A/N: BTW! In the last chapter i just want to clarify that the Quidditch season has started but the Gryffindor chaser disappeared and they need a new one soon because there is a match in two weeks. Between editing and posting, that little piece has gone missing. Sorry for the confusion if you experienced any. Well! Here it is people, Chapter 26!

Chapter 26: A Message from Salazar

"Do you think he's all right?" Someone above his head whispered and Draco felt himself sinking back into awareness.

"Did you see what he did? It looked like he crushed his head!" Said another voice, not so quietly.

"What did I tell you all!" Said a sharp voice that made Draco cringe. "I told you that if you were to be in here you had to be qui-"

"Shhh… He's waking. I saw him flinch at the sound of your voice- no offense Madam." Said a slightly familiar voice and Draco ventured a look out of his eyelids, barely opening them a crack. "Look, he's opening his eyes."

Draco opened his eyes to find himself being gawked at by a group of… of Gryffindors. Jumping up, Draco knocked a tray of food over and let out a howl of pain that made everyone in the room stand perfectly still.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, you both should know better than to come in here and act like this." Madam Pomfrey said quietly as if any loud sounds would frighten Draco. "Now you and your group need to go, Mr. Malfoy has some rest to catch up on."

"We just want to talk to him for a moment, Madam." Said the female voice of Ronald Weasley's youngest sister, one of the star Gryffindor beaters. "We promise, don't we Harry?" She nudged Harry in the side and he nodded.

"Malfoy?" Madam Pomfrey asked and Draco shrugged. He knew that anything they had to say could not make a difference about what he had done and why. Yes, he remembered. He remembered watching her zoom towards him, her broom cracking painfully through his ribs, he remembered her flying forward on her broom, hitting her head on the handle, he remembered watching her fall through the air unconscious of the danger, and he remembered lunging off of his broom, grabbing her arm, turning their bodies so that he would absorb the brunt of the fall. And all this had taken place in a matter of seconds. Something so quick but it would change everything.

Madam Pomfrey nodded and waited for them to begin speaking. "Well, go on." She said and Ginny cleared her throat.

"I'm afraid it's a private matter, Madam." She muttered and Draco inwardly nodded. So it was something they didn't want to say in front of Pomfrey. All right, that made things a bit more serious.

"Oh very well, but when I'm back out here in five minutes, you three had better be gone. Now the rest of you can just wait outside." She said, shooing the small group of Gryffindors out of the Hospital wing and, entering her office she slammed the door rather hard.

"Well?" Draco urged, crossing his arms over his chest. As soon as he did this he regretted it. As it turned out, his ribs were still hurt and he sucked in a sharp breath and replaced his hands beside him.

"I- _We_ want to know why you did that." The girl said and Draco looked to Potter and Weasley. They didn't seem nearly as curious. _So they knew…_ Draco mentally shrugged. _Oh well, at least they knew how to keep their Gryffindor traps shut._

"What exactly did I _do_?" Draco asked, clearly messing with the younger Gryffindor.

"You know." Potter spoke up and Weasley took on an 'intimidating' stance that he assumed was meant to… well, intimidate him. Weasel did a very poor job of it and Draco was sure he would fear Snape in a pink, fuzzy, frilly, bunny suit more than he did this gangly, sixteen-year-old wizard.

"Oh!" Draco exclaimed. "Saving your little friend?" He asked. "Well, I guess I shouldn't have but everyone has hero impulses every once in a while. Ask Potter. Sure, he gets the urge a lot more often than most sixteen-year-olds but hey! We all have little flaws that irk the hell out of people."

"Cute." Weaselby's sister said, placing her hands on her hips.

"Sorry, not interested." Draco drawled and Harry took a small step forward.

"Did I not tell you this would be a waste of time? We should have just gone straight to Hermione." The girl said and Draco's interest was peaked.

"Hermione hasn't been exactly truthful with us lately." Harry said giving his guinea pet a sideways, reproaching glance. "I figured it would be better to start at the root of the problem and work our way up."

"Well, if that is the case then I guess you've started at the wrong square, mate." Draco smirked. "If I were you and I was looking for the root of the problem I would start with Hermione. She is one messed up Gryffindor."

"What do _you_ know about her?" Weasel the second asked as if he knew nothing at all and Weasley rubbed his eyelids in frustration. _Yes, he definitely knew._

"A lot more than you think."

"What do you-"

"_What_ did I say you three?" All four of them jumped at the crude intrusion of Madam Pomfrey's angry voice. "Out!"

"But-"

"No you don't, Miss Weasley. Out!" Madam Pomfrey pointed at the door and when the three Gryffindorks realized that they weren't going to get anywhere this time, they walked to the door, looked back once, then left.

As soon as Madam Pomfrey began bustling around him pouring odd colored liquids into a cup, Draco made a decision. "I'm leaving." He said suddenly and he threw his legs over the edge of the bed, gasping in pain. "I have work I have to do before Monday." Draco added between breaths.

"Oh no you aren't." She said in her severe voice without looking up from her concoction. "You'll be lucky if I let you go to classes on Monday, let alone be up and about tonight."

"Night? It's later than I thought. In that case, I had better hurry." He said, standing. Leaning against the bed to steady himself, Draco took deep breaths as he gathered his clothes together and just as he was closing the curtains, madam Pomfrey drew them further from his outstretched hand.

"No assignment is worth risking your health. I can write you a pardon-"

Draco grabbed the curtain, tearing it from her grasp violently. "It's not for school, woman! I have other duties here at Hogwarts as a prefect and as an advanced arithmancy student. Not everything that goes on here is about god forsaken schoolwork!" He shouted while laboriously stripping off his clothing behind the curtain.

"You really need to lay down right this moment, Malfoy." Draco shoved aside the curtain and stepped out fully clothed.

"I don't need to do anything right this moment except get moving." He said and she sighed loudly.

"At least take a bottle of this." Pomfrey said as she handed him a small purple bottle. Draco took the cap off and gave the substance a sniff. He immediately recoiled. "What is it?" He asked, feeling a pang of drowsiness.

"It's to help you sleep. It will be very painful and hard for you to sleep with all those mending injuries and I should let you know they are going to be no picnic." She said, obviously resigned to the fact that Draco had taken control of the situation. "And as you can see, it's very strong, so use it sparingly."

Draco nodded, slipping the bottle into his cloak pocket. Draco walked to the door but paused as Madam Pomfrey called after him.

"And no Quidditch for at least three weeks." She said and Draco felt his heart skip a beat.

"Don't be ridiculous, we have a match against Gryffindor next week." Draco stated, picking lint off the shoulder of his cloak not realizing that his right hand lay limp at his side, almost useless.

"I know that and that is precisely the manner in which I would not suggest stressing those tendons in your hands. And your bones! I don't know how those injuries occurred but you should know that all four of your larger knuckles were broken, two of them in more than one place. They were already starting to heal wrongly so I had to rebreak them while you were sleeping and begin mending them, that's why there's little feeling." She said and Draco nodded darkly while trying to flex his fingers. "Three weeks, Mr. Malfoy. And if you refuse to listen, I will have a word with your head of house to make sure you _do not_ walk onto that pitch next week."

"Whatever." He said and left. He, of course, had no intentions of heeding Madam Pomfrey's advice and due to the rivalry that there was between Gryffindor and Slytherin, Draco doubted Snape would listen to the nurse anyway.

As Draco walked through the darkened corridors he had to admit though that this hurt like a bitch. How fast Hermione must have been going! He cringed as he remembered the sound his ribs had made but even this small movement caused him great pain and he let out a sigh.

_Slytherin dormitory or library?_ Draco asked himself. He knew he had some major work to do before Spring Break. He was pretty sure Hermione hadn't discovered the little mess he had made of their workspace and he would have preferred it to stay that way.

Over the last week, Hermione had pointedly avoided any space in which they shared and she only spoke to him in classes when it was completely necessary, which he couldn't blame her for. He had been very rude to her and he knew she was not going to put herself in any situation any time soon that could end with similar results.

But he had taken advantage of this time spent alone. He had fixed almost all the documents by this time and had replenished most of their supplies that had met an… unfortunate end. He did not, under any circumstance, want Hermione to know that he had lost his temper and had almost sacrificed their months and months of work for… for emotions. Especially emotions that he couldn't explain to _himself_.

"That would be library then." He told himself and changed direction.

Safely in the room, Draco could now let the pain show. The stairs had been hell and he swore to god that this was the worst pain he had been in since the time his father- hell it had to be almost ten years before- had beaten him within an inch of his life. Draco didn't remember what he had done, all he knew was that it had been one of those lessons that kept you grounded even years later.

Narcissa had almost left Lucius then, Draco recalled. But his father had threatened her with something far worse than death and as Narcissa had explained to Draco, who had been in bed for two weeks straight, she just wasn't brave enough. Narcissa didn't think Draco remembered it, but then again Draco remembered a lot more than anyone expected.

As Draco looked at the document he was currently cleaning up he was grateful that the ink damage on the original documents was very little and that only seven translation pages out of this folder were ruined. It would take very little time to fix.

Searching his pocket for his wand, Draco let out a sigh. He would have to get that from Madam Pomfrey the next day.

Nearly an hour after entering the room, Draco was more than ready to leave. He was tired and his aching body was begging for sleep. The tortured muscles and bones felt like fire beneath his flesh and he knew it was time to go when he nodded off and nearly hit his face on the table as his head had slipped out of his hands.

Muttering a curse under his breath as he stood, Draco attempted to stretch. This failed miserably and for a moment he wished he had done what Madam Pomfrey suggested and stayed in bed. But with that thought came the knowledge that if he _had_ stayed in bed, he would not have gotten up for days. Madam Pomfrey was overprotective, controlling, and _very_ gracious with medication as well as stern affection.

Draco slowly placed his folder on its designated shelf and turned towards the door. Stepping out into the hall, he made sure to even out his ragged breaths and walk straight, hiding his pain. He didn't know what time it was but he assumed it must be late considering not a single person was out and about in the hallways.

His dreams returned to him with a frightful clarity all of the sudden and he felt a hint of foreboding in the air. It seemed almost odd how quiet things were.

Walking up a staircase, Draco's breaths grew more ragged and it became more difficult to breath properly at all. After he started to become light-headed Draco slowed his pace further and focused on staying aware. It seemed like a nightmare, this walk to the prefect dorms, and Draco could not help but wonder if he was going to make it.

"Mad hatter." Draco uttered outside the dorms and the tapestry swept aside to admit him into the commons. As he moved deeper within the first thing he noticed was the sleeping form of Miss Hermione Granger. She sat in the large red and gold chair next to the fire with head leaned against the backing, chin over her chest, and a small black book lay across her stomach holding her page.

Draco was momentarily struck by the image and did not move, barely breathed. _Had she been waiting for him?_ It seemed odd that she, after avoiding the dorms for the past week, would come here willingly and wait in the commons without purpose. Walking forward silently, he moved slowly through the common room and reached the small chair where he gently took the book from beneath her hands.

"You read way too much." He whispered under his breath and she stirred slightly at the sound of his voice. Draco lifted the book and tilted it towards the light so that he could see the writing. _The Ten Most Influential Wizarding Families of the Twenty-first Century…_ Draco opened it to the page she had been saving and was surprised to see Malfoy written across the top of the page. As he read through the list of names he recognized every single one. As a child he had been forced to take a home-class on family history. _Great grandmother, father, mother, myself… Diana?_ Draco reread the name twice hoping for an error. _I don't have a sister…This book has misprinted._

Draco angrily threw the book onto the table and turned his attention back to Hermione who had not moved in the slightest. "Why does it matter?" He asked himself referring to the bloodlines.

He wondered why she had this sudden interest in family trees and such when she had never really cared. _Do you really know if she does or doesn't care?_ He asked himself and Draco was unable to answer that. She _acted_ as if she didn't care.

Looking around, Draco's eyes fell upon a throw blanket on the back of the Hufflepuff couch and he grabbed it. He placed the blanket over Hermione's sleeping figure and watched in fascination as she squirmed under the new weight. But as soon as she adjusted, leaning slightly to the right, she fell still again and her breathing evened out in deep, comfortable sleep.

Draco yawned quietly and felt the need for sleep suddenly overwhelm him. It was so late and he was so tired and until this moment he hadn't realized just how late and how tired he truly was.

He tore his drooping eyes from Hermione and walked to the door to the Slytherin dorms. Turning the handle, he pushed. It opened a little but then met some kind of solid resistance. Pulling it back, he pushed again with the same result. Draco pushed one last time as hard as he could and stumbled into the room.

Darkness enveloped him and then suddenly candles all around the room came to life with dancing flames. He looked upon his room and uttered a frustrated curse. Everything was astray. All of his possessions lay strewn across the floor and not one thing was in its proper place. Furniture was scattered and his mattress was flipped over against the armoire.

Someone had been in here and Draco knew it had to be the other Slytherin prefect. Who else could enter the dorms? Kicking something, Draco cried out. He turned in circles, howling in pain while grabbing his toe.

"Fu-" Draco's voice faded and he released his foot silently, forgetting the aching pain he felt wracking his entire body. His eyes were now focused on the wall straight ahead of him where in green, well-written letters it said,

"One can scrub one's hands for hours

Hours upon hours but,

Once a traitor to one's own blood,

one's hands will never come clean…

Salazar"

It was not so much their presence as what they said that creeped Draco out. Every child he knew, knew that phrase. Muttered from Salazar's own mouth hundreds of years before, those words held an immediate threat, an immediate danger. It was straight from the Death Eater's handbook…

Draco, no longer able to control his body, felt his knees go weak. The mixture of fatigue, pain, and shock as well as fear, was too much for Draco.

Even as he fell to the ground upon mangled books and feathers from his torn pillows and closed his eyes, he felt safe. Even though his door was open, he felt content to sleep how he was. _Sleep at last, sleep at last..._

Running through the forest, Draco felt his lungs pumping overtime to compensate for the lack of oxygen to his brain. He had broken Dumbledore's rule… no, wait, Dumbledore was dead. It didn't matter anymore.

The dark lord had taken over the school and every student who didn't bend to his will was waiting to die. Hermione was already dead, she had been one of the first to go. But Draco's situation was no less than hers had been before she died. He was waiting for death as well.

Okay, Draco didn't really know if she was dead. All he knew was that she was taken into the forest by a small group of death eaters the week before. He sure hoped she was dead for her sake. Death eaters could be so cruel to women…

Maybe that was why he was running. Maybe he still thought Hermione was still alive. Maybe that was why he had left the sanctuary of the school. He had to save her.

By now, the Hogwarts' grounds would be teaming with werewolves, centaurs, alidores, and many other very dark, sinister creatures of the magical world. Anywhere outside of the school was unsafe now that Dumbledore wasn't here.

Suddenly, Draco heard a bark behind him and then a deep, vicious growl. Turning his head only slightly he saw the lean, dense body of a silver werewolf behind him. Stopping suddenly, everything became a blur and when Draco looked down, he found himself drenched in the werewolf's blood, the Malfoy dagger stuck deep within the werewolf's chest. "I hope to god that wasn't Lupin." He muttered.

Screaming reached Draco's ears and it was nothing like he had ever heard in his life. It was definitely human but it was animal-like in its pitch, desperate, and it was begging for death. As the realization hit home, Draco steeled himself against fear. If he stumbled upon the camp of death eaters and Hermione was still alive, he would kill her. But if she wasn't… Draco could only pray she wasn't.

Walking forth, Draco moved stray branches aside with his injured arm. Watching his feet as he walked, he avoided snapping branches loudly underfoot. The last thing he needed was to give away his position. He had to take them by surprise or there was no way he could take them. Especially not without his wand.

"_Crucio!_" Draco didn't even have time to think before his nerves caught on fire. Falling to the ground, he writhed in pain. After a moment of nerve-wracking, mind breaking pain, everything stopped. His vision blurred, Draco looked around for the source of the curse even though he knew who it was. "You little worthless piece of slime." Said the snarling voice of his father.

Draco grasped his dagger and unsheathed it. "Where are you?" He called into the darkness of the forest. "Show yourself you coward!" He shouted and his father stepped into the clearing, a cloaked figure at his side.

"It is time." Rasped the man at his father's side.

"Yes…" Lucius whispered. "Yes, it is."

"No." Draco said. "No!"

"Yes…" They approached, blocking out the dull light of the moon and Draco could only shout in protest. He was too weak… just too weak…

Pain seared through Draco's left arm and he was jolted awake, immediately regretting falling asleep. Drenched in sweat, he sat up slowly and tried to ignore his injuries.

He had to talk to Granger as soon as possible. Standing, Draco walked out into the common room and looked around. "Shit!" He muttered as he realized it was a Hogsmeade weekend. All the students third year and above would be out wandering the wizarding streets of Hogsmeade.

Throwing his cloak around his shoulders and giving his disarrayed room a last look, Draco slammed the door to his room and resolved himself to go to Hogsmeade despite the injury the walk would do to his already damaged body.

Walking along the corridors, back erect and face cleared of emotion, Draco began making a plan. If they stayed over holiday (spring break) then they might have time to finish the spell and maybe if they were lucky, they could test it, though how they would do it made him shiver.

There was no question, it had to be done and they were the ones that had been chosen to do it. Like it or not, they were in it for the long haul… together.


	27. Midnight Broom Ride

Chapter 27: Midnight Broom Ride

"Hey Hermione!" Called a voice from behind her and Hermione turned to face Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas. "Where're Harry and Ron?" Seamus asked and Hermione waited for them to catch up.

"They had too much homework and they figure they'll have enough fun over holiday to make up for a day in Hogsmeade. I, on the other hand, have finished all of my homework and have some shopping I'd like to get done." Hermione explained and Dean turned to Seamus.

"I'll catch up with you later." He said, hitting Seamus lightly on the arm. "My brother asked me if I could get him some sour pixies for his birthday and I wanted to drop by the Weasley Wizard Wheezes for bit to check things out and see how Fred and George are doing. I'll meet you back at the Three Broomsticks, all right?" Seamus nodded and Dean bounded off in the other direction.

"You want to get a butter beer or two?" Seamus asked, turning to Hermione and she nodded. She was a bit parched and she wanted a moment or two to set her bags down. So far she had already gotten over half of the supplies she needed and she was beginning to feel their weight.

As they entered the familiar pub Seamus led her to a table her, Ron, and Harry had never before sat at, let alone noticed. It was odd, she suddenly realized, being in Hogsmeade without her best friends.

As she began rummaging in her money pouch for loose coins, Seamus reached over the table and tapped her hand. "I've got it. Don't worry about it." Hermione gulped, nodding.

"Thank you. I'll pay you back." Hermione said and Seamus dismissed her statement with a wave of his hand.

"It would be rude if I didn't pay." He said. "Anyways-"

"What would you two like?" Interrupted Madam Rosmerta, the barmaid.

"A butter beer for both of us please." Seamus said, handing her the correct coins and then some. "Keep the change." Madam Rosmerta replied with a short inclination of her head.

"Two butter beers Frank." She called back to the bar and a rather large, burly man with dark hair behind the counter nodded. "How are you all doing today?" She asked cheerfully, placing her wand, which had been in her hand for cleaning, behind her ear. "Where're your little friends?" She asked Hermione who retold her explanation. "Never did agree with those N.E.W.T's. Teachers lay the homework on thick the whole second term and students never have any time to run about with all of the studying that has to be done."

Hermione nodded. "They procrastinate." She said guiltlessly and Rosmerta smiled.

"Well yes… As do all children your age." She commented and Hermione smiled politely. The smile did not reach her eyes and Madam Rosmerta must have noticed, for a second later she said she had to be off, new customers and all.

"You certainly have a way with people." Seamus said with a smile and Hermione nodded absently. "So what else do you have to do in Hogsmeade?" He asked, tapping his fingers nervously on the table.

"I need to pick up a few extra rolls of parchment and I wanted to get a pocket full of sweets for Harry and Ron. I hate it when the two of them have to miss these weekends." Hermione replied, turning her attention back to Seamus.

"So Ginny's in Hogsmeade?" Hermione shook her head yes and Seamus thanked the pretty barmaid as she brought their two butter beers to the table and handed them the warm drinks. "Why wasn't she with you- Owe! That's hot." Seamus cursed intelligibly as he set his drink atop a napkin Madam Rosmerta had just set down.

"She wanted to go see Fred and George and I figured that would be a private thing. Oh thank you." Hermione said as she took her drink in her hands and set it calmly on the table. "She hasn't seen them since summer." Hermione explained and Seamus nodded, taking a drink. "The last Hogsmeade visit she was bogged down by homework Flitwick assigned to prepare the fifth years for OWL's."

"I see." Seamus said, clearly uninterested. "Do you think you made the Quidditch team?" Seamus asked and Hermione realized she hadn't even thought of it.

"What I did was a stunt. I didn't mean for it to be serious and… I'm sure Harry would want someone more experienced as the new chaser. I heard Christoph was an exceptional chaser." Hermione said, referring to the missing Gryffindor.

"But you're good too. With a bit of training up I'm sure you could do just as well, maybe better than Christoph." Seamus said. "And I think I'm just the person to give you the proper lessons." He said and Hermione smirked.

"Oh do you?" She asked and he nodded, taking a rather large drink.

"I certainly do. Berkley isn't nearly as graceful as he is aggressive and I think I'm just the in between you need to learn the ropes…" Even as Hermione stared at Seamus, mildly fascinated by his advances, she could not help but let her thoughts wander to Draco who was probably still fast asleep on the torn floor of the Slytherin dorm. She had no idea why he had done it, but he had destroyed his dormitory and when she had left that morning, he had been thrashing about calling out to his dead father.

She had wanted to soothe him or wake him or just to do something but… but nothing. She was scared.

Seamus' voice slowly came back into focus and Hermione tried to pick up on the conversation."-So I was thinking we should start lessons as soon as possible considering. What do you think?"

"Hmm? Yes… Yes, that would be a grand idea." Hermione replied as she sipped from her cup. Staring out the window, Hermione was startled to see Draco Malfoy staring in the window but it seemed that as soon as she blinked, he was gone. She was thinking about him way too much.

"And then I blew up the castle with a large amount of margarine covered in napalm and I nearly lost my arm!" She heard Seamus say and she was snapped from her thoughts.

"You what?" Hermione asked and Seamus nodded slowly, the expression on his face suggesting hurt mingled with disappointment. "Oh, I'm sorry Seamus…" Hermione began but he shook his head.

"It's fine. I should have realized from the beginning that you were a bit… preoccupied. I'm just sorry I'm not as good a company as Ron and Harry." He said slowly as he rose from the seat and set a few coins on the counter. "I don't know if I'll have time to teach you after all." He finished and stalked off out of the pub.

Hermione let out a sigh and rubbed her temples. "Good Merlin…" Hermione exclaimed lightly under her breath. Taking one more drink of the warm, honey-colored liquid, Hermione stood and left, ready now to finish her shopping.

Draco could not believe it. Granger and Finnigan. He would have thought she'd have better taste than that. That Seamus was a clown.

For just a moment he had been ready to walk into the Three Broomsticks to get a butter beer, maybe rip off a snifter of fire whiskey, but as he opened the door, through the window he saw Hermione and Seamus having a drink… Together, and Seamus had been into some in depth conversation.

Draco had turned straight around and walked in the other direction. The last thing he wanted to do was to talk to Hermione in front of one of her Gryffindor buddies or explain why he needed to have a word with her alone.

Walking down the street, Draco walked into Everything Quidditch and had a look around. As there always was, there was a new state of the art broom model on display and a group of boys about Draco's age and a bit younger was huddled around it whispering in awe.

"What's this year's gift to Quidditch?" Draco asked and a smaller boy near the back supplied him with an answer almost immediately.

"It's a new line of Comets." The boy said. "Damn fast and the handling's unsurpassable."

"Really?" Draco drawled and he stepped forward, pushing his way through the crowd. Some turned around to protest but the second they saw who was pushing them around they submitted and let him do what he wanted. _It's great to be a Malfoy…_ Draco thought to himself with a sneer.

After a quick visit to Madam Pomfrey in the morning, Draco's pain had been alleviated by a little draught of heaven that she called indolentia. After he left her office, despite a small stomachache, he had no pain whatsoever. He thanked her magic as he pushed roughly through the tight crowd of Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Slytherins, Ravenclaws, and even grown men and women.

"It's a beauty." Muttered someone as Draco approached and his eyes fell upon a very shiny and very new broomstick. Made of beach wood, the new comet, called the first in the neon tail series, was lighter than any other and easy to handle. The tail of the broom was what caught Draco's attention though. Every single twig of it was trimmed to perfection to allow for maximum aerodynamic speed. Draco was almost worried to ask its maximum speed… Considering its low weight and perfect shape it must be over one-seventy-five at least…

Naturally it was expensive and Draco, out of habit, reached for a pocket in his robe but suddenly stopped himself. _Why on earth am I hesitating? My mother sent me five hundred galleons this month alone and I have enough saved up to buy three of these._

Looking at the broom, Draco bit his lip and sighed. _What would be the harm in indulging? _He hadn't spent so much money in months and he had to admit the opportunity was very tempting. So tempting in fact, that he could not resist the urge.

Walking away from the crowd around the glass, Draco stepped up to the counter where a sales person in a Chudley Cannons shirt smiled kindly and asked if he could assist.

"How much is that comet in the display case. It says price on request." Draco said and the sales person frowned. Obviously no one had yet asked.

"It's three hundred and fifty seven galleons, twelve silver sickles, and three bronze knuts… A hefty price." The man said and Draco began rummaging through his pockets for his money purse. "Only payable in cash, no checks or I owe you's and such. Cash." The man reiterated and Draco nodded, pulling out a rather large pouch.

"Count it yourself, it's all there and then some." Draco said, smiling at the disbelieving look on the man's face.

The man _did_ count it, every galleon, every sickle, and every knut. "I just need you to sign here." The man uttered shakily. "The model just came out last week. It'll be all the rage for years, you have made a worthy purchase Mr. Uh…" He read Draco's slanted signature and almost jumped. "Malfoy… Mr. Malfoy. I apologize for being short with you… I just… I get a lot of clowns, erm… you know." Draco nodded, giving a curt smile.

"Do I get my purchase today?" He asked and the man nodded vehemently.

"Chester! This boy's just bought the broom." The salesman shouted catching not only the other worker's attention but everyone's in the shop. "Get the one in the display case. Mr. Malfoy's boy's here, I tell you! Just do it!"

Five minutes later, Draco walked out of Everything Quidditch, a new broom in hand and a group of followers behind him. Exploring it with his eyes as well as his fingertips, Draco became consumed by buyer's bliss.

_What a beauty!_ Draco was concentrating so much on his new broom that he ran straight into someone, knocking them over onto the pavement.

"Malfoy!" Shouted the familiar voice of Hermione Granger and Draco suddenly snapped out of his daze. If there was one thing that could ruin buyer's bliss he was sure its name was Hermione Granger. "Watch where you're going, look what you've done!" She yelled and Draco immediately bent over and began picking up scattered quills and parchment as well as sweets.

Once everything was in order she finally looked at what he held in his hands. "A new broom I see." She observed. "And I'm sure it's top of the line, brand new, and utterly ridiculously priced." She snarled and Draco forced a grin.

"Would you even suspect any less?" He asked and walked off in the direction he had been headed. He had been right. He felt the buyer's bliss deflate and die in his chest where it seemed to settle, bent on making his chest heavy and tight.

"Of course she would ruin this. Of course!" He exclaimed as he walked to Treasure Isle Ice Cream Parlor where he would wind down the day of excitement with a chocolate frog sundae with Bertie Bott's Flavored Beans sprinkled on top.

Since he had refused to let them wrap it, the shop owner had insisted that Draco take some anti-rubbing paper to wrap it with when he was done admiring it and before he ordered his ice cream, that was what Draco did.

"Well if it isn't the little git." Crowed a voice from the corner and Draco turned, expecting to see the same group of Gryffindors that always caused him trouble. Draco was unpleasantly surprised to see the new owners of a shop down the street from where he now sat. These two were none other than Fred and George Weasley, the infamous troublemakers that had dropped out of schooling the year before when the very ignorant Dolores Umbridge had taken over.

"You got a new broom, did you?" Asked the other one and they walked forward, taking the seats around Draco.

"You know how immature it would be if you both still did this sort of stuff now that you're all grown up and in the _real world_?" Draco asked, a placid smirk on his face. "Honestly, I don't see how making a few bucks can make you any more confident. I see you're still wearing the same clothes you've been wearing since your fourth year."

"You see here, you little bastard," Began Fred, the one with a giant F on his sweater. "We _earn_ our money and that makes it better than yours." He explained and Draco smiled.

"Come on, guys." He laughed. "Money is money whether or not you earn it and some people just don't have enough of it." He snapped. "A few extra coins aren't going to get you into a mansion any time soon and that is what I have, a mansion."

"And I'm sure it's teaming with death eaters since I am willing to bet my life's savings that your house is their headquarters." Snarled George in Draco's same tone.

"Not a very impressive bet, Weasley." George stood and for a second, Draco was scared they were going to jump him. But by now he was in a fowl enough mood and he didn't care whether he was being malicious without reason. He had provoked this and he was ready to deal with it.

"Let's go, I dunno how long Deirdre can handle the shop on her own. It's pretty popular." Fred said, pulling on George's sweater.

"You're one lucky little git." Spat George and Draco smirked. "Someday you won't have your money or your luck to spare you and that's when the biggest surprise will come." George suddenly grinned as if he knew something Draco didn't Draco hated that look. "Family and love are worth more than all the galleons in the world and you'll have neither." He let out a short, forced laugh and walked away side by side with his twin.

Draco shrugged Weasley's comment off and stood. Walking to the counter he ordered his sundae, ate it, then left Hogsmeade, new broom in hand…

Hermione walked into the room and wasn't very surprised to see Draco there sitting at his normal spot acting as if she hadn't entered the room. She was sure _he_ had felt comfortable coming in the room and for that, she resented him. Now she was no doubt weeks behind.

After the day she had had, she was surprised she was still standing, let alone composed.

As she had entered the castle from Hogsmeade she had been surrounded by a large crowd of Gryffindors offering congratulations as well as condolences and when she discovered what each was for, she nearly fainted.

"Congratulations on making the team." Parvati had said and this was the fifth time someone had said something of the likes to her and Hermione decided to ask why.

"What are you talking about? I only tried out yesterday-"

"I'm so sorry, Hermione. I just heard about Crookshanks." Someone else interrupted and Hermione felt her heart nearly stop again as she remembered.

"What?" She had asked.

"Hagrid found him dead in the forbidden forest. Poor fool, probably wandered in there to chase some mice and ended up werewolf food." Someone she didn't know replied.

Hermione suddenly steeled her emotions and remembered the good. She had been made Gryffindor's new chaser. But even as she forced the thought, she knew she would have chosen Crookshanks over any Quidditch position on any team in the world…

"I see you're hard at work." She stated dryly as she grabbed her folder and took her seat across the table.

"We need to step up the progress." He replied and Hermione stopped what she was doing, pushing thoughts of her dead cat to the back of her mind.

"Has something happened? Does it have to do with your dream?" She asked and Draco looked momentarily surprised.

"What do you know about my dream?" He asked sharply and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I heard you thrashing about this morning. Now, what is it?" Draco stopped shuffling through his papers and met her eyes for the first time in the last almost week and a half.

"I think you-know-who is going to try something soon." Draco said. "I think he might make a move against the school."

"Don't be silly." Hermione began. "Voldemort wouldn't try anything with Dumbledore around." She said. "Not even Voldemort is that crazy."

"So you don't mind saying his name." Draco observed then shrugged. "In my dream, Dumbledore wasn't there." He let the weight of his words sink in before continuing. "We need to finish this. Hogwarts will need this spell soon."

"How can you know that?" She asked and he shoved his left arm towards her.

"I can _feel _it." He said, lifting up his sleeve. An angry, red mark scarred the pale flesh of Draco's inner arm and Hermione sighed.

"It looks like you scratched yourself." Hermione was unwilling to believe what he said. It was too much. Dumbledore gone, Hogwarts in danger. He had finally lost it. Draco had finally lost his mind. "I don't know what that mark is supposed to prove." She said and Draco pulled his arm away.

"Do you happen to notice its location?" He asked and Hermione thought about it. It was his left forearm but what could that have to do with anything…

"Draco…" She whispered, fear reaching out at him. "You don't think…" Hermione's eyes opened wide as she shook her head. "You probably scratched yourself when you tore apart your dormitory last night, Draco. It can be a number of things-"

"I didn't tear apart the dormitory." Draco said, interrupting her train of thought. The sooner she believed him, the sooner they could start trying to make others believe it as well. "Someone else did that."

"No one else knows our password, Draco." Hermione lectured. "And I was in the common room reading. Don't you think I would notice if someone came waltzing in the common room and started to blow your room apart?"

"What time did you fall asleep?" Draco asked. If she didn't see anyone come in then there was a chance she had been bewitched asleep.

"I… I don't remember the exact time. All I remember was sitting in the chair in front of the fire reading." She said and her voice trailed off into thin air.

"Exactly. You want to know how I know it wasn't me besides the obvious reasons?" Draco asked and Hermione nodded. "I found a message scrawled across my wall. I knew it would be cleaned up before I got back from Hogsmeade so I wrote it down." He pulled a piece of parchment out from his pocket and tossed it across the table.

"One can scrub one's hands for hours. Hours upon hours but, once a traitor to one's own blood, one's hands will never come clean…" She read aloud and Draco waited. "Salazar?" Hermione asked. "I know I've heard this quote before." Hermione said suddenly, throwing the paper down on the table top as she began to rummage through her book bag. "I know it's in here somewhere. Binns went over this two weeks ago, I know it- Ah, here it is. Chapter eighteen." She set the book on the table and began skimming with her eyes.

"Salazar Slytherin, the founder of the house of Slytherin is well-accredited for creating most of the philosophies Voldemort's followers, the death eaters, adopted in their rituals and beliefs. As he once said, _one can scrub one's hands for hours. Hours upon hours but, once a traitor to one's own blood, one's hands will never come clean_, Voldemort has proven this saying to be true over and over again…" Hermione closed the book shortly and placed it back in her bag.

"Death eaters?" Hermione asked.

Draco nodded. "Straight out of the handbook." His voice had taken on a low quality that Hermione found disturbing.

"Great…" Hermione whispered, grabbing the piece of parchment and tearing it to shreds. "Everything else had to go wrong today and now this!" She shouted. "_Aboleo!"_ The last bits of paper left on the table were incinerated and Hermione just sat there for a moment, looking at the small pile of remaining ashes.

"Is everything okay?" Draco asked and he recoiled at the look Hermione gave him.

"Does it look like everything is okay? Because if it does then I am better at this whole emotion-hiding thing than I thought or you're just stupid." She snapped and Draco laughed.

"You want to talk about it?" He asked quietly and Hermione smiled, shook her head, and brushed the ashes off of the table and onto the floor where they disappeared. She remembered doing that cleaning charm on the room. It guaranteed no messes and no dust… Just swipe everything off the table and it was gone… If only life worked like that. "You don't want to talk about it or just not with me?" He asked and Hermione propped her chin up on her fist, staring at him through sad eyes.

"A bit of both, actually." She replied. "I'm on the Gryffindor Quidditch team." She said suddenly, a minute later after he had already gone back to work. Looking up, he gawked.

"You've got to be joking…" He said. "After what happened, Potty- sorry- is still going to let you on the team?" He asked and Hermione nodded.

"And that's not the worst of it." She admitted bitterly. "I don't know how to play, my first game is in less than a week, and I pissed the other chaser that was going to teach me how to play, off today and now he doesn't want to help me…" She added.

"Finnigan?" Draco asked, biting his cheek when Hermione nodded. "I would say not to worry about it but I figure if I were in your same situation I'd want to break an arm or something to get out of it." Draco said with a smirk but Hermione didn't smile back.

After another moment of silence, Draco saw her second defense give way and tears filled her eyes. "What is it?"

"Hagrid found Crookshanks today…" She sobbed, refusing to let the tears fall down her face. "He's been missing for months now and I was afraid to admit to myself he was gone but Hagrid says he's been dead for a while. Weeks even."

"Crookshanks is your cat?" Draco asked, trying to feel empathetic but finding trouble doing so considering it was just a cat.

"Not just a cat… He was smarter than a cat, much smarter and he'd know better than to go running off into the forbidden forest. He's smarter than some stupid werewolf!" She exclaimed and Draco figured that a werewolf was the cause of death for her little friend.

There was an uncomfortable silence and Draco waited for it to be over. He had no experience with this sort of thing. Crying girls? He had seen Pansy cry once the whole time they had been _together_ and that was when she discovered she wasn't going to be the mother of the heir to the Malfoy fortune…

Standing, Draco walked around the edge of the table and knelt next to her and he winced in pain. His pain was returning and Hermione could see it in his eyes.

"I've hurt you badly, then." She uttered and Draco shook his head.

"No, not at all. It only hurts when I move." He replied and Hermione smiled. Draco reached up slowly and hesitantly brushed a strand of hair out of her face. He wanted to look into her beautiful eyes when he said this. "It's all right to miss him but as long as you remember, Crookshanks' life doesn't have to be over." His words seemed to be exactly what she wanted to hear because she bit her lip and threw her arms around his neck.

After a moment of submitting, Draco pulled away and stood. Hermione looked up at him, many questions on her face.

"I'll teach you." He said suddenly and Hermione looked confused. "Since your Gryffindor friend won't teach you how to play, I will. I've been playing Quidditch since I was old enough to grip a broom." He explained and the confusion on her face didn't fade. "What?" He asked.

"Are you the same boy who knocked me over in Hogsmeade." She asked, completely serious.

"That depends," He began, "Are you the same girl who tried to kill me yesterday?" He asked and she nodded her head. "Then there's your answer…"

Half an hour later, after breaking into the Quidditch shed, un-wrapping his new broom, and gearing Hermione up, both of them stood on the Quidditch pitch, ready to fly. Draco, who was also wearing his uniform, shivered.

"It's nearly midnight and if we get caught-"

"We won't." He stopped her and handed her his broom. "Take it!" He snapped and she did as he said. "Now show me how you get up in the air." Setting the broom on the ground, Hermione jumped as Draco lunged forward. "What're you doing?" He asked.

"Madam Hooch taught us to-"

"Oh, that old prune. She's old fashioned and that's for beginners." He said. "You don't have to set it on the ground." He said, his voice growing softer and less stern. "Now straddle the broom and lift off. Be careful, not even I have ridden this broom yet and I'm afraid your life wouldn't cover the damages…" He said jokingly and Hermione hoisted her leg over the other side of the broom and paused.

_Now!_ Hermione kicked off of the ground and felt herself grow queasy as she picked up speed. Boy was this broom fast! Leveling it out with the slightest touch, Hermione looked around. She was more than fifty feet in the air and Draco was now just a dot on the ground below. He motioned her to come down and she leaned forward on her broom, tilting it only slightly and she sped towards the earth.

"No! No! Pull up! Pull up!" He shouted and she did so just in time. She hovered about a foot from the ground and Draco looked so pale she thought he might faint. Hermione inwardly hoped it was concern for her safety as well as the broom's… "All right." He said slowly, letting out a breath. "I guess we start from the beginning." He said, offering her a hand to help her off the broom.

Once on the ground, Hermione looked at him, her face flushed with an odd excitement. "That broom is amazing! I barely touch it and it goes as fast as a Lamborghini!" She practically shouted in joy.

"Lamborghini?" He asked and Hermione laughed out loud.

"I'll have to explain it to you sometime." She said, laughter still in her voice. "Now, let's get started for real. I want to learn…"

"All right then. First, I want to teach you proper mounting technique." He said. "First, straddle the broom and make sure your grip is in the right place." He demonstrated this and Hermione watched with rapt attention. "Slightly bend your knees like this to give yourself plenty of room to correct any lift off mistakes you may make." Hermione nodded, absorbing the information like a sponge.

"Now I'll show you how to lift off." She gestured him to get on with it and he prepared himself. Going through the motions, which by now were second nature, Draco mounted and kicked of. With the wind rushing through his hair, Draco made sure not to add anything extra to his demonstration. Hermione needed to focus on the basics and when she felt comfortable creating her own technique, he was sure she would.

Draco leveled out and then slowly tilted the broom forward, ready to touch down. Draco made sure to concentrate on landing correctly so Hermione could see how it was done and when he was finally on the ground she clapped.

"That was bloody brilliant!" She said and Draco couldn't believe how excited she was.

"You think you're ready to try it on your own again?" He asked and Hermione bit her lip.

"I'm scared…" She murmured and Draco handed her the broom.

"Then I'll go up with you the first time. Does that work for you?" Draco asked and Hermione nodded slowly. "All right, I'll get on first. Now watch how I'm bending my knees." He exaggerated the movement and Hermione nodded. "All right now, get on. No, put your hands here." He grabbed her by the hands and wrapped her arms around his middle. "Now pay attention…" He mumbled, barely turning his head and Hermione felt her mouth go dry. They were so close… "Here we go…" He warned. "One… Two… Three!" Draco pushed off as hard as the muscles in his legs would allow and they zoomed upward into the darkened sky.

"Hold on tight!" He shouted and he felt Hermione tighten her grip around his middle. "You can open your eyes now, we're level." He whispered and he felt Hermione's tension loosen as she looked around.

"That was amazing." She said quietly and Draco leaned back slightly, savoring the feel of Hermione's warmth behind him. Up here it seemed like they were in an entirely different world and it was all theirs.

"It's even better in the heat of battle." He informed her and Hermione laughed, laying her head on his shoulder.

"I'd hardly call Quidditch battle…" She said.

"You've never played a game of Quidditch." He elaborated. A gust of wind buffeted the light broom and Draco gripped slightly tighter on the handle.

"We should go inside now…" Hermione said hesitantly. "It's late, we have school tomorrow, and the wind is beginning to pick up."

Draco would have given any excuse to keep them up here together… alone but he could think of no logical excuse. _Who says it has to be logical?_ "Not just yet…" Draco said.

Turning slightly, Draco came face to face with Hermione, whose emotions were displayed so blatantly on her face that he could only smile softly, something that felt so natural on his lips he wondered why he didn't do it more often. Her hair was blowing behind her in the wind as they moved slowly over the pitch, not caring if it was night or day, not caring if the castle was on fire or even if it was raining and the world was coming to an end…

"You're going to do just fine on Saturday." He conceded and Hermione did not reply, only looked deeper into his gray eyes. Tracing her jaw line softly with his fingertips, Draco took Hermione's face in his palm and leaned forward. It would have been uncomfortable had he not shifted slightly, leaning most of his weight off of the broom but when their lips met, he realized it was well worth it… Any discomfort at this point was worth feeling her warmth and emotion flood through him, forcing him into undeniable bliss…

There was only one word Draco could think of as they drifted along above the pitch completely oblivious to all else. Nirvana.

(A/N: I was so listening to Three Doors Down's new song called "Let Me Go" and I think it affected the way this went. If you don't like it… tough. I do.)

(BTW! Look up Nirvana and you'll know why this word adds to what I am describing. For those of you too lazy or apathetic to care here it is, the definition straight out of a freakin' dictionary. **Nirvana: _the final freeing of the soul from all that enslaves it_.** tear...


	28. The Worth of a Slytherin

Another quick transition chapter but this is well worth what's coming up. How does Heather feel about all this that's going on...? We will find out... I haven't written it yet so I have no idea either... :)

Chapter 28: The Worth of a Slytherin

Draco lay on his back staring at the ceiling, hands folded behind his head. _Wow…_ He thought and rolled over, shifting positions. By now he had realized he wouldn't be sleeping tonight. His head was swimming with too many new questions, new ideas, and new feelings that he could not suppress.

Licking his lips, Draco rolled over once again. "Shit…" He said, sitting up. There was no point in even lying down anymore. It only made him even more restless.

Standing, he began to pace. _What was he going to do?_ He suddenly asked himself. The thought hadn't struck him as he had been gliding over the Quidditch pitch but now it was the only thing that he could think about besides… he groaned as his thoughts went down that path and he forced them back onto subject.

No one could know what had transpired between them, of course, but he couldn't keep screwing with her head like this, that he knew… He remembered what she had said outside her Gryffindor portrait hole and as he thought of it, the image came alive in his mind.

"Thank you." Hermione said, handing Draco his broom, which she had been carrying around almost possessively. She looked so shy now that they were back in the castle Draco realized.

"No… Thank you." Propping his broom up against the wall, he leaned his left hand against the wall, blocking her path (not that it needed blocking) and leaned forward, tipping her chin up with his right hand. As his lips were pressed over hers one simple fact made everything they were doing okay. She was kissing him back.

A moment later, Draco could feel the question floating in the air and he had no answer. He could say nothing that could dispel her fear and he could say nothing at all that would make this whole thing make sense in his own mind.

But as it turned out, he didn't need to say anything…

"It was _fun_?" Hermione asked herself furiously once she stood safely on the other side of the door. "It was fun…" Hermione sighed. _I can't believe I said it…_

Turning around, Hermione's eyes met the saddest scene she had ever witnessed. Half of the Gryffindor house was scattered about the common room. Some were asleep, some were bored, and some were angry. Hermione had to admit that the two angriest faces were those of Harry and Ron.

"We wanted to be the first to tell you, you know." Harry began. "But then Parvati told us she told you and you went storming off so… we decided to throw you a welcome to the team party." He finished, his tone growing lower every word. "Assuming that you would come back, that is."

"I…I…" But Hermione was speechless. She couldn't find one word to display how sorry she was and even though she searched for _something_ to say, nothing she said would make things all right. She at least wanted to lie, they deserved at least a lie but her tongue felt trapped between her teeth and her jaw refused to open.

"Most of the team's gone to bed. We have to keep up on our academics and there's school tomorrow." Ron said. "I told Amber I couldn't go to her birthday party because I had duties to my own house, my own friends, my own teammate." Ron said harshly and Hermione tapped her foot.

"Well?" Harry asked and Hermione shrugged, not knowing what to say.

"Well what?"

"Where were you?" He asked and Hermione suddenly felt very attacked. It was her business where she had been and how fair was it that they were having this conversation in front of everyone else in their house?

"That is none of your business." She replied coldly and Harry nodded.

"You were with that git, weren't you?" He stated and Hermione glared. "Weren't you!" He shouted and suddenly two more Gryffindors in the room were forced to listen to their fight against their will as they were woken from sleep.

"It's none of your business, Harry!" Hermione roared. "Where do _you_ go at night? _That's_ something _I'd_ like to know." Hermione shouted turning this around on him, and Harry threw a harsh look to Ron, who recoiled. "Well? Answer _that_!"

"I don't answer to you." He said and stood, walking forward very slowly. Hermione saw the look on his face and felt temporarily guilty. She had meant to bring that up in private.

"Oh, and I answer to you?" She asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"I'm your captain!" Harry shouted. He had begun to ascend the staircase into the boy's dormitories but now he turned back, placed himself straight in front of her, leveling their eyes.

"On the Quidditch pitch!" She replied scathingly. "I thought we were pretty good friends but the moment since Sirius died you've closed yourself off in this alternate universe of pain and I've all but moved on, Harry. You shut me out and that's fine, but you have to expect the same from everyone else." Hermione said, her voice lowered only a pitch. By now, every Gryffindor in the common room was listening, which didn't help her temper at all. "Haven't you ever heard the saying, 'treat others how you yourself wish to be treated'?" She asked and Harry nodded curtly. "Take it to heart."

"But I never knew all this trouble would be caused by one sleazy, slimy, little git of a Slytherin." Now he had hit a cord and Hermione was prepared to let him have it when she paused. Best explain this in a tone he'll actually hear.

"It's not about Draco at all, Harry." She lectured then, "It's about you and how you feel about him, which isn't reasonable in the least. If you were to take one look beyond that green and silver scarf, those cold ambitious eyes, and the dysfunction running through his veins then you would you see what I do. The worth of a Slytherin." She spoke, her voice taking on a preaching quality and Harry looked as if what she had just said shook him. "He's not just a Slytherin, either Harry. He's a human. He's a Malfoy, yes, and he's a jerk, but he's not a death eater. We're fighting Death Eaters, here, not Slytherins. I thought that, as Gryffindors, we were supposed to look beyond houses and blood and reputation but I guess in some ways were are all just as bad as Slytherins in our close-mindedness." Hermione turned to the left and walked down the stairs into the girls' dormitories, slamming the door behind her.


	29. The Ancient Room

Quite the interesting chapter to write, let me say right here. I had to keep so many people in character that it became harder and harder as I wrote. I like it though and I think you might too. I'm looking forward to writing the Quidditch match very soon. Well... here it is.

Chapter 29: The Ancient Room

The start of the week before holiday went smoothly and everyone was growing more and more excited about the upcoming Quidditch match against Slytherin and Gryffindor. Taking place on the Saturday before break, everyone knew the game was going to be phenomenal if not more.

But along with the excitement came the tension. There were more house points lost for fighting during the start of the week, than there had been the whole first term for all the houses put together. Besides inter-house tension though, there was a certain unease among Gryffindors. A rumor had circulated school that the famed trio was at odds.

"Miss Granger, what spell do we use to straighten ribbons and such?" Professor Flitwick asked and sighing, Hermione picked up her wand, uttered the Latin word perfectly, pointing it at the blue ribbon on her desk, and the ribbon took the spell just as was expected: perfectly. "Excellent job, Miss Granger. Fifteen points for Gryffindor. Now everyone else try- no Neville, you have to point it at the object like so…"

"You look bored." Said the voice of Amber as she took the unoccupied seat next to Hermione, who nodded.

"Without Harry and Ron, pranking Flitwick just doesn't have the same appeal." Hermione said slowly, twirling her wand between her fingertips. "I hate it when we're fighting…" Hermione uttered.

"They miss you too, you know." She replied, opening Hermione's book to the correct place and pushing it in front of her. "We're supposed to be practicing."

"I've memorized the book already." She said, pushing the book away. "I've got all the practice on these stupid spells that I'll ever need." She snapped. "Straightening spell…" She mumbled and growled as she dropped her wand and it hit the table with a quiet thwack.

"Why _are_ you fighting?" Amber asked carefully. "Ron wouldn't say a word and when I asked Harry, his nostrils flared and his face went red. It must be serious."

"No…" Hermione began. 'No, they just want me to do something I don't feel the need to do." Turning her large brown eyes onto Amber she uttered a soft sigh. "Do you feel uncomfortable dating Ron at all, with you being in Ravenclaw and all, I mean?" She asked and Amber smirked.

"Sometimes, because there's always a… certain secretive manner about us. Neither of us wants to reveal too much about our house but then again, we get over it." Amber replied, tucking her wand behind her ear.

"Well then why is Ron so against inter-house relationships?" She asked.

"Is that what this is about?" Amber asked and Hermione nodded. "I see… Ronald's being a little hypocrite again?" But this time Hermione shook her head slowly.

"The odd thing is… I know where he's coming from and I've been there." Hermione grumbled. "But now I see the other side of things and they will have none of it."

"Who is it?" Amber asked and Hermione's eyes went wide and she shifted uncomfortably.

"Who's who?" She asked, avoiding the question completely.

"This _other side_ you're talking about." Amber said, not prepared to take any of Hermione's evasive attitude.

"Someone so completely wrong for me," Hermione confided, letting her inhibitions fall.

"Draco Malfoy?" Amber asked and Hermione gawked, uttering a curse.

"How did you know?" Hermione questioned. "Did Ronald say something to you, because if he did I'll have his head as a mantle-piece-"

"No, no." Amber exclaimed. "It was a guess, I swear!"

"Not even our divination teacher guesses that well, now tell me how you knew." Hermione demanded in a whisper.

"If you practice with me, I swear I'll tell you. Professor Flitwick is looking at us and he isn't very happy." Hermione threw a glance behind her, flicked her wand and the ribbon curled.

"Now you try." Hermione gestured. Amber did and immediately Hermione saw a flaw in her technique. "No, your wave should be looser. You're using the wave technique we used for the folding spell, which is sharper. That's why your ribbon is creasing. It puts too much pressure on the cloth and it folds." Hermione explained and Amber nodded, unsure. "Trust me. Now try it again."

Amber flicked her wand, loosening her movements and the ribbon curled perfectly. "Wow…" Amber said turning to Hermione. "You really know your stuff. Ron was right."

"Speaking of the git, what else was he right about?" Hermione asked with a smile as she returned to her earlier question.

"He didn't say anything." Amber said nervously. "I saw you guys last night… along with everyone else in the astronomy club…"

Suddenly Hermione felt as if she could die, no, she wished she would. "You can't be serious…" Hermione uttered, her face flushing in fear, embarrassment, and worst of all guilt.

"I am. But you should know that when people started joking and conversation was getting randy, I told them to keep their traps shut…" Amber said but Hermione was beyond listening.

"You didn't tell Ron or Harry did you?" She asked and Amber shook her head. Hermione let out a sigh of relief. "Are there Gryffindors in the astronomy club? Hermione asked as the thought hit her mind.

"One…" Hermione nodded. _This news wasn't so bad._ "Ginny, Ron's sister is in it. Very good at spotting celestial objects. She didn't seem all that happy about it now that I think about it…" Her heart stopped again.

"I can't believe it… How can I tell Draco? He's going to have a fit- Wait! Are there Slytherins in the astronomy club?" She asked, her voice trembling.

"Honestly and do pigs fly?" Amber asked with a smirk but Hermione found that she could not return the gesture. She was going to have quite the conversation with Ginny later, she was sure.

"I imagine this is going to be all over school within a day's time?" Hermione asked, resigning herself to the truth of things.

"Oh, sooner than that." Amber said honestly. "The worst thing about all this is that Ravenclaws have friends on both sides of the tracks. Some of us will tell Gryffindors and some of us will tell Slytherins. There's no way around it. You and Draco are going to have to face things as they are."

"I don't know if either of us are ready for that." Hermione stated and Amber flicked her wand again, re-curling the ribbon.

"Then maybe you two aren't ready to have any kind of relationship, then." Hermione was about to argue but found no point… Amber was right. _I should have been a Ravenclaw…_

Draco wandered through the hallways trying to avoid any type of gathering. If Draco thought it was hell when he saved Hermione's life then this had to be some kind of sick joke. He couldn't walk anywhere without hearing about it. Didn't they all realize that he had been there?

At first he had tried to play it off as some kind of joke or elaborate plan to humiliate Gryffindors but that charade only lasted two seconds when he saw Hermione in the hall and turned the other direction blushing like a shy teenager.

Then again, he thought, who says Draco Malfoy shouldn't be able to snog whomever he so wishes. After all, who better to snog to get back and Harry Potter than his little mudblood sidekick and Weasley's girl toy?

As Draco dealt with all of the rumors floating about he realized the four major differences between the houses. Hufflepuff thought that Draco and Hermione were in love and wanted to end the centuries long feud between houses, Ravenclaw thought it was teenage lust and Gryffindors and Slytherins though, pretty much believed the same thing. That Draco was using Hermione to get back at and humiliate Gryffindor house by shaming one of their most famous representatives.

In deduction, Hufflepuffs were ignorant, Ravenclaws simplified things way too much, and Gryffindors and Slytherins alike were paranoid and devious. Who knew the two houses that fought the most and were odd with one another all the time were the two that turned out to think the most alike?

Draco should have expected it though. Why would something good happen to him and end up to be a good thing in the end? It never really ever happened that way and he figured he was trying too hard to see things through rose-colored glasses.

Turning right, Draco walked down a familiar hallway. Since the year had begun he knew of several new passages that led to the same places. This hallway, the hallway he had been attacked in at the beginning of the year, he found out led to the Transfiguration classroom although he had no idea how the straight and narrow hallway made it up a few flights of stairs.

Walking through the darkened corridor, Draco felt the slightest urge to look upon the painting. It was weird, he suddenly realized, how whenever he was in this hallway, the painting seemed to call to him.

Draco suddenly stopped. Turning to the wall, he saw the painting. It was just as he remembered it except he could tell it had been restored since he saw it last. Draco reached forward and lightly ran his fingertips across the frame. The painting was so lifelike that Draco almost felt the fabric flutter under his hand, almost felt the heat of this woman's eyes upon him, almost felt the evil that must have surrounded her when her portrait had been painted.

Draco shuddered. _Enter…_Whispered a soft voice and Draco jumped. _Enter… _Draco looked around for the source of the voice and upon finding none, he re-focused his eyes on the painting.

"Shit!" Draco stumbled backwards, throwing his arms behind himself to catch his weight before he fell. Feeling the sturdy wall Draco looked around wildly. She had moved. The portrait had moved. The thought was absurd but he knew what he saw.

Looking into the woman's dark brown eyes, the irises disappeared as they rolled into the back of her head and she let out a blood-curdling shriek that made Draco's hands fly over his ears.

_Enter…_ Came the voice again and suddenly Draco felt ice flow through him. _Enter_… Whispered the voice of the Bloody Baron and Draco realized too late what was happening. _Enter…_ Draco felt his arm raise and he held his hand parallel to the portrait, which hadn't yet stopped screaming, and everything suddenly went silent. _Enter…_The ice cold feeling went away and Draco was left alone in the hallway, or so he thought. _Enter…_

Draco felt his energy drain as he stood there and the portrait disappeared, leaving only a wide, golden, arched doorway. _Enter…_

He stepped forward and entered the dark room. It reeked, he noticed, like decay. "_Luminescence serendai!"_ The candles all along the wall lit up to reveal a scene of horror. If Draco thought he had seen something this bad before he was terribly mistaken. Turning to his right he got sick all over the floor.

"Malfoy, what on ea-" The firm voice of McGonagall stopped in horror as she stood beside him. "Go. Go tell Dumbledore. Stone Gargoyle, password is berry blossom. Go!"

Draco sprinted down the hallway as fast as he could. _Stone gargoyle? Berry blossom? How the hell was he supposed to know what she was talking about?_ Draco suddenly skidded to a stop. _Stone gargoyle…_ Draco stepped forward, inspecting the mean looking and very ugly stone gargoyle.

"Berry blossom." He whispered as if testing. When nothing happened he stepped closer and rose his voice. "Berry blossom." The gargoyle leapt aside, revealing a rather large opening. Though Draco wasn't exactly shocked to see the spiral staircase within the walls move slowly up, he wasn't nonchalant either. This was where Dumbledore lived… This was very clever…

Stepping onto the moving staircase, Draco watched in mild awe as he rose. But after a moment it stopped moving and when Draco turned around, he was facing the innards of Albus Dumbledore's headmaster's office.

"Hello Mr. Malfoy." Said a wheezing voice from the corner. "May I know, to what do I owe this very unexpected visit?"

"I… sir?"

"Oh, over here. Come have a seat." Draco followed the voice and saw Dumbledore's desk. He motioned for Draco to sit down and Draco never refused an order. "Lemon drop?" Dumbledore asked as he pressed a tray forward.

"Sir… It's sort of urgent." Immediately Dumbledore's demeanor changed.

"Yes," He said, setting the lemon drops down. "What is it?"

"I don't know how it happened so I won't bother trying to explain it but I found a room… A room I am pretty sure no one was ever meant to find." Draco began and Dumbledore nodded for him to continue. "Inside there were… bodies."

"Who? Do you know who they are?" Dumbledore asked and Draco nodded.

"I only recognized one. One of them is Pansy Parkinson. She's… dead. They're all dead." Draco uttered disbelievingly.

"I see…" Dumbledore rose and grabbed his purple cloak off the rack to his right. "Stay here and wait for me. I suppose Minerva sent you?" The old man asked and Draco nodded. "Where would she be then?"

"First floor corridor behind the Durmstrang tapestry." Draco replied. "It's about half way up the hallway." Dumbledore gave him a quick nod and left in quite the hurry that Draco sat dazed and confused. _Why was he to wait here?_

"Great." Draco muttered. He was going to miss Transfiguration, not at all the class to miss. But then again, McGonagall was going to miss it too so no big loss, he supposed. But after transfiguration, Draco had defense against the dark arts and… well, Alias Dark was not too understanding of absences as of late. She had taken thirty points off of a Hufflepuff the week before because, after a week of standing undiscovered in a trick, sinking stair, he had needed to spend half a week in the hospital wing recovering from emaciation and dehydration.

Looking around the room, Draco marveled at how calm of an atmosphere it had. Despite what had just happened, Draco felt oddly safe and secure in here.

There was a rustling in the corner and Draco turned, looking upon a bright red bird. _A phoenix…Could this be the famous Fawkes my father told me all about?_ It looked so young but then again, Draco recalled, Phoenixes never died. They were reborn from their ashes. _Highly figurative as well as literal_, Draco thought with a smile.

Uneasily, Draco broke his eyes from the creature. It looked at him as if he could see right through him. Those piercing bird eyes made Draco uncomfortable for more than one reason. Letting his eyes wander, they fell upon the sorting hat. Draco hadn't seen the sorting hat up this close for a very long time, six years in fact.

Draco stood and crossed the room. Reaching up to the high shelf without regard to any personal laws he was braking Draco brought the hat down upon his head.

"What!" The hat shouted and Draco cringed. "Sorting time again and I thought I had all this time. Wait… You're not a first year. There's more magic in here than a textbook. Ah… Draco Malfoy is it?"

"I was curious hat… whether or not you could tell me a few things." Draco approached cautiously and the hat laughed a great booming laugh greater than the stitches in its brim.

"I'll tell you if I will or won't but ask your questions without worry." The hat replied and Draco nodded. "Don't shake me off! You're head's a lot bigger than most those who try me on. Not a very snug fit, if you know what I mean…"

"No… I really don't." Draco replied and the hat coughed. "I was wondering… well, what I assume every student wonders."

"Whether I chose you the right house or not?" Draco lightly nodded. "Well, looking through your head right this moment I see that you are indeed a Slytherin at heart, that has not changed at all. But some of the things I see in here you have barred from yourself. May they be dark or darker but that is your own business." The hat explained. "Now, is that all or is there more we need to discuss?"

Draco bit his lip. He wanted to know if a relationship between a Gryffindor and Slytherin could ever work out but Draco doubted with all of his logic that this was something the hat could answer. "I was wondering if you could tell me the major difference between myself and let's say… Harry Potter."

"The house extremes, eh?" The hat asked. "Well, from the top of my head, I could not tell you. Yes, I have been in the boy's head and I am most definitely in yours now but... There are things about the Potter boy that are… unstable… ever-changing. Granted, you are much more close-minded than Mr. Potter and he is much less able to forgive. But there are things that shaped you both that are very similar. To each his own, the saying goes. Is there anything-"

"No, hat." Said a voice from the corner and Draco pulled the hat off, turning. "That'll be quite enough." Dumbledore said. "Draco. Please replace the hat." Draco placed the hat back in its place upon the shelf and turned back around. "Take a seat. We have some things to discuss." The man said, tucking his long silvery beard under the table.

Draco took his seat across from Dumbledore and waited, glaring odd into space, hands folded over his chest defiantly.

"Did you know that room was there, Mr. Malfoy/" Dumbledore asked and Draco's eyes shot up. He shook his head.

"No, sir."

"Then you have stumbled upon a very unique find, Mr. Malfoy. It turns out that we have discovered a new secret addition that dear Salazar made to our school upon construction. A private study, to be sure." Dumbledore explained. "It hasn't been opened in a long while."

"Then how did Pansy get in there?" Draco asked. "And why couldn't she get out? I highly doubt she would have gone in there if she knew she wouldn't be able to get out." Draco stated plainly.

"And there was no way she could have known. We have discovered a very odd defense mechanism that this room has. Only purebloods can open it unassisted and only purebloods can leave unassisted." Draco nodded slowly until it suddenly hit him.

"But Pansy was a Slytherin-"

"Not only pureblooded witches and wizards can be of a Slytherin personality. I assure you that Ms. Pansy Parkinson was of mixed descent." Dumbledore said slowly, wiping the shocked look of Draco's face.

"Why would Voldemort leave her to die?" Draco asked, though he knew the answer. He knew everything there was to know about the way Voldemort operate. In fact, if one could major in Dark Lord Trivia, Draco was sure he could.

"My guess is that Voldemort viewed Ms. Parkinson as expendable, gave her some way to gain entrance in the room to give false hope of escape, and then left her there to die." The old man explained wearily.

"Sounds like him." Draco muttered and Dumbledore nodded darkly. "What about the other bodies… who're they?"

"We have identified two of them so far as the previous defense against the dark arts teacher, you met her… Ms. Knock, I think her name was. And then there was a Gryffindor student that went missing over holiday break. A young one… Collin Creevey to be sure." He said and Draco almost gasped aloud. Collin Creevey… The little one all the Gryffindors flocked to protect?

"Have you told the Gryffindors yet?" Draco asked, choking on his question and Dumbledore shook his head slowly.

"Why?"

"I want to tell them…" Draco said, shocking himself with his own words. "I need to tell Hermione. This news won't be easy and I think that we should keep it personal…" Again Draco was not all too unpleasantly surprised by his sudden interest in being considerate. Dumbledore nodded.

"You may go." Dumbledore said wheezily and Draco stood, walking to the door in a few short strides. "And Mr. Malfoy…" Dumbledore began and Draco turned back. "I would prefer it if some other students didn't find their way into the room with your guidance." Draco smirked. "And no more late night broom rides. You should know that from my window, you can see the Quidditch pitch quite clearly. Even in the dead of night…"

Draco's mouth went dry. _So now everyone knew…_ Draco threw open the door and left quickly.

As Draco sped through corridor after corridor he grabbed hold of the first Slytherin he saw, which just so happened to be the Slytherin he wanted.

"You little bastard." Draco past, pushing Crabbe into the nearest wall. "You knew… You're the one that led her into that room to slowly die and rot away. Same with that little Gryffindor and our teacher." Draco shouted.

"I have no idea what you're talking about you little prick, now I would appreciate it if you took your hands off of me." Crabbe said.

"Don't you play innocent. It doesn't suit your face." Draco pulled his wand. "You were the only one that didn't seem at all worried about Goyle's death and… you weren't in the crowd of Slytherins at the foot of the stairs when they attacked Granger." Draco said and surprisingly, Crabbe's face broke into a grin.

"How could I of?" He asked and Draco grinned, suddenly thinking like a Slytherin.

"You're in Voldemort's inner circle and Voldemort knew about the room. He told you what to do, whom to do it to, and when. Pansy was just a plot in a plot." Draco said and Crabbe nodded. "But why the Gryffindor?

"For sport." Crabbe stated simply.

"All of them were just pieces in a puzzle." Draco uttered in a dark tone.

"And are you at all disappointed?" He asked.

"No…" Draco said, putting his wand away. He was dealing with more than a murderer, he realized. He was dealing with a death eater and his wand was not going to do anything at this point. "Not at all."

Draco walked away, breathing hard and had to force down vomit as he thought of the expression he had seen on the young Collin Creevey's face… Now he had to tell Hermione… everything, and he doubted he could take away her pain, making the prospect of her tears difficult to face.

With mixed feelings, Draco admitted to himself that this was just the event that would bring the Gryffindor dream team back together, pushing him further away from Hermione. Draco brushed his hands together, washing his mind free of all inhibition. For the first time in his life, Draco _wanted_ to be honest…


	30. Why Gryffindors and Slytherins Don't Mak...

An awkward chapter to write, I have to say... I don't know if I want to add a lot of fluff after all, It's Draco friggin' Malfoy we're talking about, not cedric. Not exactly a whole chapter but I wouldn't categorize it as a transition either. I just hope you guys can help me tweak this one. Looking for serious suggestions here. I like the Quidditch part but it's very long...

Chapter 30: Why Gryffindors and Slytherins Don't Make Good Snogging Partners

Hermione mounted her broom, bending her knees slightly to allow for error. Gripping the handle as she had been shown, she poised her muscles for ascent.

Draco had offered to lend her his new Comet but she had refused, saying that he needed it. Though he had insisted otherwise she had refused to take it.

The whistle was blown and Hermione pushed off. Hair pulled into a secure pony, she didn't have to worry as wind rushed through her hair. _Here we go…_

She could feel her nerves doing some kind of dance in the pit of her stomach but looking over the field her safety was reassured. She had Draco, Ginny, Harry, and Ron, the four people she believed would give their lives for her.

Ducking, Hermione dodged a bludger and swerved to the right. She had to follow the other chasers, which meant paying attention. Leaning forward on the handle, Hermione accelerated and caught up with Seamus who she saw had the quaffle.

"You got it?" She asked and Seamus tossed the red ball to her. Hermione, caught in unawares, nearly fumbled the ball but upon curling it into her hand, she drew it inward and cradled it. "I'll take that as a no." Hermione felt her heart beating wildly in her chest as she weaved in and out of other players on the field towards the goals at the other end.

Hermione was suddenly stopped in her tracks as a bludger zoomed directly in front of her broom but she was unable to completely avoid collision. She was wrenched forward as it hit the right side of the tip of the broom and she screamed.

"Hermione!" Seamus shouted holding his hands out. "Toss it here." As Hermione plunged forward she tossed the ball up behind her and prepared for a really rough landing.

"Shit." She muttered, looking down at her broom. Trying to land normally, Hermione was ready when she finally hit the ground and sprawled forward over one shoulder. "I need another broom!" She shouted somewhere off to the side as she stood and as soon as the wood hit her palm she was up in the air again looking for the other chasers.

She was up in the air in enough time to see that Seamus had scored and Hermione let out a loud whoop of victory. Ginny swooped past, hitting a black ball away from Hermione and she winked as she flew the other direction, heading for Seamus. It was so exciting that Hermione was lost in her adrenal rush and she felt nearly invincible… Nearly, she reminded herself.

Speeding past a female Slytherin, Hermione flew towards the other end. Everything was happening so fast that she barely had any time to react when a shock of silver and green darted right in front of her. It was Draco, she realized and anger flooded through her until she saw him mouth sorry. Now Hermione saw what had held his attention. A small golden ball that she assumed to be the golden snitch was fluttering right below him.

"Watch out Hermione." She heard shouted and she pushed forward allowing Harry to catch up to Draco whom she realized was not on his new broom but on the same broom he had been using since second year. This was a fair fight then.

Hermione kept her eyes peeled for bludgers but most of her attention (as well as everyone else's) was focused on Draco and Harry. They were about ready to collide when suddenly Draco flew upwards, a victorious look on his face. Hermione was about to resign herself to half elation/half disappointment when she realized that the golden ball had gotten away and that the only reason Draco was smiling was because it had.

"What are you doing?" Shouted Ginny. "Game's being played down here Hermione. Slytherin's just scored twice while your head was in the clouds!" The girl yelled and Hermione dashed forward.

Seamus, who had gotten the ball through a foul, threw it to her and Hermione turned effortlessly around and flew in the other direction. As she moved forward she realized that the faster she went, the harder it was to dodge Slytherins who were trying to bar her way.

"I'm open." Shouted the other chaser Hermione didn't recognize and Hermione pitched the quaffle to him. He made almost a full circle around the goal and served the ball as hard as he could towards the Slytherin keeper's head. She ducked and a loud cheer shook the whole left side of the pitch as the quaffle flew right through the first goal hoop and Seamus jumped forward, kicking it through the one right next to it. There were twenty points right there…

Lowering herself, Hermione followed the Slytherin chaser who now had the quaffle. She was right on his tail when he suddenly swerved upwards through a tight space between his Slytherin buddies, which conveniently closed right as she tried to follow. Unlucky for Hermione that one of his buddies was a beater…

She tried to block the first hit but the second was too much. The bat made contact with the side of her head and she immediately felt her senses slow.

"Foul! Foul! That was a foul!" Yelled the person over the intercom and Hermione heard vague boos as she tried to steady herself. She had begun to slip forward on her broom and with a start she realized that at this point she was easy bludger bate. Shaking her injured head she tried to clear her blurry vision.

A whistle was blown somewhere below and she let out a sigh of relief when they all touched down.

"You all right Hermione?" Asked Harry as all they ran forward. The Slytherins had touched down too and Hermione felt her head clearing, the dizziness fading into fresh anger.

"Yeah…" Hermione uttered, rubbing her head. "Please tell me that was a foul." Hermione stated in a low growl.

"Should be- What's _he_ doing? Is he mad?" Ron asked and the Gryffindor team turned. Draco Malfoy was shouting at his team in hoarse tones that they could all hear, even across the field.

"That was the most pathetic display of cheating I have ever seen. If I wanted underhanded, cheating, violent, utterly useless players I would have asked some of the Hufflepuffs to come try-out." He shouted loudly and there were boos from the yellow section above. "Granted, I don't want you hugging the damn Gryffindorks but if we are going to win, we are going to win on talent not on malicious, crooked trickery. If I see one more instance of dishonest, unsportsmanlike misconduct, I will pull you off your broom by the neck so fast you'll be seeing madam Pomfrey so that she can stitch your head back on." Draco took to the air in a swift movement and Hermione smiled.

"If that isn't the oddest thing I think I've ever seen." Ron murmured and Hermione had to concur.

"Now that you're all right, are you ready to get back up there?" Harry asked and Hermione nodded.

"Is that going to be a foul?" Hermione asked and Harry nodded. He had just returned from speaking to the referee.

"She said you get two free shots. Make them count. It's just you and the keeper and I guarantee that, despite the fact this is your first game, you'll do just fine." Harry assured her and Hermione mounted her broom.

As she kicked off, the referee threw the quaffle up to her and she caught it easily, darting to the Slytherin goal posts. "Go Hermione!" She heard shouted from below and she readied herself mentally as well as physically.

Positioning herself in front of the center goal, Hermione observed how the keeper flew out, ready to guard all three goals simultaneously. "On three…" Hermione told herself. "Three… two… one!" She feinted to her right and the moment she saw the keeper follow the movement she swerved back to the left and launched the ball through the air. The keeper though, caught on quick enough to block and catch the quaffle, tossing it arrogantly back to Hermione whose heart had sunk a foot, at least.

_All right then… Plan B._ Hermione lunged forward, throwing the ball into the air. The keeper, eyes focused on the quaffle, didn't see as Hermione flew to the right and hit the ball with the side of her right foot, which sent the ball through the middle hoop in a blur of red. Hermione had noticed it had been neglected and had taken the opportunity that was handed her.

Throwing her hands up in glee, Hermione shouted to all who bothered to hear that she had made her first goal.

"Uh… Hermione. It's excellent, really, and we'll celebrate later but the game's happening right now. The Slytherins have the quaffle." Seamus said and Hermione nodded, following him to the other side of the field.

The Slytherin chaser hit the quaffle past the other chaser and Ron, who hadn't been prepared, was unseated as the ball hit him in the stomach. Hermione groaned, diving towards the bright red ball that was plummeting to the earth. Taking it in her hands she tossed it up to Seamus who then passed it to the other chaser across the field.

But before he made it to the goal a loud cheering rose and before Hermione knew what was happening, the game was over. Gryffindors had won three hundred and twenty to two hundred and seventy.

They all landed and were immediately all over Harry. They may not have wrested the house championship from the Ravenclaws but they had beaten the Slytherins and Hermione was all for the cheering she received as a member of the team.

"Yeah!" Hermione shouted as she was pushed into a hug with Ron and they all began jumping up and down. Suddenly, Harry was on their shoulders and they were carrying him up towards the castle where celebrations would no doubt start and commence until the early hours of the morning. But Hermione fell back guiltily.

Looking back at Draco, their eyes met and she motioned inconspicuously for him to follow her. She quickly made her way to the Gryffindor Quidditch shed and unlocked it. Once inside she neatly folded her uniform and placed it on a shelf then she set her broom in the corner and waited.

When Draco entered the Gryffindor Quidditch shed Hermione was beaming. Flushed with the excitement of her first Quidditch game, Draco thought Hermione looked more beautiful than she had ever looked before.

"I scored one!" She said and Draco didn't want to bring down her mood by telling her how disappointed in his team he was.

"Congratulations on wining your first Quidditch game but we'll be training ten times harder and next year, it'll be no picnic beating us." Draco said.

Hermione's smile didn't fade in the least as she said, "I know," And wrapped her arms around his neck. "I can't believe we won." She breathed against his shoulder and Draco writhed away. "What is it?" She asked and he blushed. "Are you ticklish?" Hermione asked and Draco shook his head vehemently.

"Don't be ridiculous, honestly Hermione." He said, but he was smiling, he was sure, as much as she was. "Even if I was, I wouldn't tell you that." He said, raising his eyebrows in mock arrogance.

"I'm sure you would." She replied with a laugh. Sitting down on the floor of the shed she motioned for him to join her. Draco complied, taking off his green and silver robes revealing his casual clothing beneath. "You own jeans?" Hermione gasped and Draco rolled his eyes. "You know how to play chess?" Hermione asked and Draco once again rolled his eyes.

"Who doesn't?"

"Ron only knows how to play wizard's chess." Hermione explained and Draco looked confused.

"There's more than one kind?" He asked and Hermione sighed.

"Yes, there is. The kind I'm good at is… well, muggle chess. The pieces don't attack one another and you have to move them yourself but it's really just as fun." Hermione said and he nodded.

"Are we going to play? Because I would be slightly frightened if you carry around a little chessboard and its pieces in your pocket." Draco asked and Hermione gave a false laugh.

"I planned ahead. I've barely gotten to see you this past week and I figured we could do with a game or two so I brought my board out here last night and hid it over here." She stood and danced across the room, pulling a sleek box from underneath some dusty, old, and frayed maroon and gold uniforms. "See." She said while handing it to him. "This was my father's until I started going to Hogwarts. He gave them to me as a bit of a good luck thing and they're the only ones I'll play with. No one but Harry and Ron has seen it." Hermione said.

"I feel privileged." Draco said seriously as he handed it back to her. Hermione opened the box and began setting up the pieces on the board. "So, same rules except we have to do it all manually and no mangling eachother's pieces?" He asked and Hermione nodded.

"I warn you." Hermione said. "I am better at this than one might assume watching me play with Ron and Harry." She said and Draco laughed.

"Right. We'll see I guess." Hermione nodded and made the first move. One hour and three games later, Hermione won yet again.

"So you're not so bad." Draco stated sullenly. "I have to give you points. You know your pieces well."

"That, I'm afraid, has nothing to do with muggle chess." Hermione said in her know-it-all voice that made him want to clamp his hand over her mouth and not pull it away until she stopped breathing. "It's all about logic. You could open a brand new pack and win every time. It's all up here. Check mate." She said and Draco growled, pushing the board away.

"Can we be done with this?" He snapped and Hermione looked down at the board.

"I'm sorry if I said something or did something. I know I take things too seriously but I can't help it." She said slowly as she straightened the board and began gathering pieces and Draco sighed.

"It's not that." He admitted. "I hate losing and I can be a real git about it." He said as he helped her carefully put her marble pieces back in their separate slots.

Hermione paused as they reached for the same piece and their hands touched. Draco however, grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze and his eyes drew hers. Leaning forward as he brushed a strand of hair out of her face, Draco prepared for their lips to meet but Hermione pulled away, standing.

"What are we doing Draco?" Hermione asked suddenly and Draco rubbed his forehead in frustration. He knew that this question had been coming but he had expected more than two snogging sessions before it did.

"I don't know what you mean, Hermione." Draco stated flatly and Hermione grabbed her board and walked across the shed to put it away.

"I mean, what are we doing? I want to know what exactly is going on." She said and Draco picked imaginary lint from his pant-leg.

"Of course you do." He muttered softly.

"Is it bad of me to wonder where this is going. I don't want to get hurt-"

"Neither do I." Draco said. "And I don't want to hurt you but why does everything have to be planned out? Why can't things just… go the way they're going?" He asked and Hermione placed her hands on her hips looking down at him.

"You mean snogging without taking any responsibility or making any commitment whatsoever? It must be nice to be Draco." Hermione spat.

"I can't even look at you." He laughed and Hermione, despite herself, cracked a grin as well.

"What?" She asked.

"You're so serious when everything about this is so silly." He said, immediately wishing he had chosen a better word.

"Oh is it?" Hermione asked.

"You intellects are so bent on logically planning every event in your lives you'd prefer not living it first hand." He said.

"Well, we intellects never end up halfway through an idea when it's too late to turn around and decide, gee this was a bad idea. I wish I would have planned this better." Hermione lectured.

"Sometimes learning is half the fun." He said and Hermione opened, closed, reopened, and once again closed her mouth. "Got you." He said and Hermione took her seat next to him. "I just want to enjoy this." He whispered. "I don't want to beat a dead horse…"

"So, let me get this straight," She said. "We're more than friends but little less than enemies." Hermione sighed.

"That just about covers it." Draco said with a frustrated shrug. "I wish that there was more that I could offer but… there isn't…"

Hermione smiled wryly. "A month ago, this conversation would have been out of my realm of possibility." Hermione said with frown. "I'm just worried. This doesn't make any sense." Hermione said slowly and Draco shrugged.

"There's nothing you can do about it. It's not going to make sense. I guess that's why Gryffindors and Slytherins don't make good snogging partners." He said with a smile and Hermione met his pale gray eyes with her brown ones. They both decided to accept how things were gracefully.

"Where did you get that little tidbit of mundane information?" Hermione asked playfully and Draco shrugged. "A reliable source I suppose."

"Prove my source wrong and we'll see if they're reliable…."

Hermione joined the party an hour and a half after the game ended and no one seemed to notice as she entered late.

"Welcome," Said Ginny. "Harry and Ron left to get some Zonko sweets and visit Fred and George. I'm so glad they moved their shop to Hogsmeade." Ginny said and Hermione could tell by the strain in Ginny's voice that that wasn't all she wanted to say to Hermione.

"You want to talk somewhere?" Hermione asked and Ginny nodded, stiffly setting her drink down. "Girl's dormitory okay with you?"

"No, there's always someone down there whether you can see them or not." Ginny replied. "How about a walk around the grounds?" Ginny suggested and Hermione hastily agreed. Not only did she feel guilty for leaving Ginny out in the cold about everything that was going on, but worst of all, she had just come from being with Draco. In a sudden surge of irrationality Hermione wondered if Ginny could smell the Slytherin on her breath.

"So…" Hermione began but Ginny stopped her. They were now in the corridor below the charms classroom and Ginny motioned for Hermione to keep things down.

"First off, I want you to hear what I am saying." Ginny said, her voice slowly rising. "You're insane. He's the ringleader of those Slytherin morons and I don't doubt in the slightest that he's a part of his father's group of Voldemort cronies. It's crazy Hermione! And you! You of all people should see that!"

"You don't even know-"

"I don't want to know him and neither should you." Ginny said flatly. "You saw what he did to my father…" Ginny's voice trailed off as she choked on her words.

"What _they_ did to your father. What Lucius did to your father. It wasn't him Ginny." Hermione said. "You know that it wasn't him. It was Lucius and Lucius is long dead."

"No, he lives on in that… That bastard of a son! I don't feel better now that Lucius is gone! Draco is just an extension of his father. They're from the same filthy stock," Ginny began and Hermione's eyes flew wide open. "And look at him. He's proof that blood doesn't make the man."

"Wow…" Hermione whispered. _Boy was she in trouble_…


	31. The Dark Prophesy

Yeah... transition chapter

Chapter 31: The Dark Prophesy

Ron and Harry sullenly made their way up to the divination classroom. All Ron could do to keep them sane was recite that this was the last class before holiday and then they would all be free for two weeks.

Harry, Ron, and Ginny were going to the burrow over spring break and Arthur, who had just fully recovered from his summer injuries, had something planned for them. Ron had invited Hermione but she had refused saying that she had important work to do at Hogwarts.

"Have fun in arithmancy, Hermione." Ron called as they parted ways. "Aren't you going to wish us luck with divination?"

"Luck is _all_ I can wish you." She said. "That's about all her class if worth anyway…" Ron gave her a look and she shrugged. "You two are the ones that insisted upon taking the useless class for what, the third year in a row." Hermione lectured as she turned the corner.

"A lot of help she is." Ron said as he moved his bag strap to the other shoulder. "I swear… that arrogant look she gets on her face makes me want to strangle something sometimes." He muttered and Harry grunted in agreement.

"There could be worse classes though I suppose. Like arithmancy or ancient runes." Harry said and Ron laughed.

"I've got nothing to complain about then." Ron replied as he pulled the small stair down and they crawled up into the turret.

"Nice to see you, Mr. Potter." Said the dreamy voice of Trelawney as they took their seats. "Well this week, child? You look a bit peaky. Could be leprosy… or worse… cancer." She nodded at her own assumption and quiet giggles traveled around the room. Even Harry joined in the laughter this time. "Been around any werewolves as of late?" She asked and Harry's smile faded.

"Not more than the average wizard I suppose." Harry said slowly.

"Good… Werewolves are a little less than fond of you." She said and Ron gave him a look of hidden meaning.

"I'm assuming she took your look of fear seriously." Ron said and Harry shrugged.

"If only she knew about Remus." Harry smirked. "That'd knock that arrogant look off her face in an instant, eh?"

"Hey… What do you reckon Hermione has to do that she can't take a day off to come with us?" Ron asked and Harry shrugged.

"With NEWT's coming up, who knows?" Harry asked. "Maybe she has some color-coding to do. She might even be working on that arithmancy project. She told me the other day that they were almost done-"

"By they, you mean her and Malfoy?" Ron asked and Harry nodded, watching Ron's ears turn red.

"You can't control who she… I don't know what they're doing and I'm not very sure I want to. But whatever they are doing, you can't decided whether or not it happens." Harry explained while opening his textbook to the page Trelawney had just assigned. "The fact remains that she has to make her own mistakes."

"Well… What if we were to give her a little help un-making the mistake she's bent on making?" Ron asked and Harry sighed but he couldn't deny he was interested.

"You've already got a plan I suppose." Harry stated and Ron shrugged.

"I'm not going to share unless I know you're in on it." He said slowly and Harry laughed lowly.

"When have I ever passed up an opportunity to play the hero, Ron?" Harry asked and Ron shrugged. "My point exactly, now spill."

"All right then, I figure…"

And by the end of the divination period Harry was waist deep in one of the most intervening plot he had ever agreed to take part in. It was so underhanded that it made Harry cringe inwardly. But it was too late to back out, Ron reminded him.

"I really, don't think we should get involved. I mean, does Hermione say anything to you about Amber? Amber's a Ravenclaw." Harry said and Ron clenched his fist.

"There is a big difference, Harry." Ron hissed. "First off, Amber is a Ravenclaw, not a sleazy Slytherin, second, she has a lot going for her very recently, and third off, _she's_ not a death eater. No, wait. Let me take that one a step further. She has never seen, conversed, nor ever supported a dark lord!"

"This side conversation really has to stop you two or I'll see you both in detention." Trelawney said. "Now tell me, boys, what you see when you look into your goblets?"

Harry looked down into his goblet, seeing the same sick gray colored liquid he had been staring at for the past fifteen minutes. Stirring it up a bit he said the first thing he could think of. "I see a… A snake." Harry said quickly and Trelawney stepped forward, softly cooing.

"Oh yes… Yes, I see." Ron stifled a laugh behind his own goblet and Trelawney threw a glare at his book that could have killed him. "A snake… Very interesting. That could mean-" But before she could finish her prediction for Harry's untimely and very tragic death the bell rang and everyone stood. "Put your goblets away."

Harry walked towards the door to leave, bag over his shoulder when suddenly Trelawney had him in a hawk-like grip.

"Hands off!" Ron said while throwing her hands from Harry's shoulders, but Trelawney was no longer there with them. Her eyes were glazed over and a deep rasping was admitting from her throat. Rude sounds ensued.

"The child will be taken and a most unlikely trio will arise from the ashes of their loss…" She rasped. "Rising above their fathers, they will take mantles all too large for their boy shoulders. A Slytherin will rise above all else and take the place the dark lord has occupied-" Her voice cut off and she fell forward.

Harry grabbed her under the arms and attempted to support her. "What the bloody hell was that?" Ron asked, genuinely puzzled.

"Now that you've seen it, you tell me it's not creepy." Harry said, leading her over to one of her chairs. "She just made a real prediction. It was like the time in third year, you remember what I told you?"

"What did it mean?"

"Draco's going to follow in his father's footsteps after all." Harry uttered. "I'm with you in this plan you've created. I can't let Hermione get drawn into this sort of thing."

"All right." Ron said and Harry noticed how pale Ron had become.

"I just hope it's not too late…" And they left Trelawney to her mumbling as they flew down the corridors in the mad rush to get up to the Gryffindor dormitories to pack for the trip to the burrow.

"I'm frustrated!" Hermione shouted at the top of her lungs and Draco nodded slowly, taking her wand out of her hand.

"So am I. Now just take a breath and try again!" He shouted. "You've got to mean it."

"But I don't, Draco!" She said, stomping her foot. "I can't say it and mean it especially when in a week or two I'm going to be saying it at you!"

"It's okay, Hermione." Draco said. "I'll have the counter curse."

"What if it doesn't work, what then? I kill you and go to Azkaban for the rest of my life and live with the guilt of killing you every day of it, that's what." She said.

"You saw the effect of the spell as well as I did. It'll work." He soothed but Hermione shook her head. Taking the scrunchie out of her hair she tightened and replaced it.

"I'm sure you've used the spell before, Draco. Why don't _you_ do it?" Hermione asked suddenly, her voice taking on a bitter and cruel tone that she knew was unnecessary.

"You're right," Draco began. "I _do_ have more practice but I also know the counter curse better than you too." He said, his voice going quiet. "It has to work this way and you know it."

"I know… I know…" She whispered. "It's much harder than Bellatrix Lestrange made it seem."

"When have you met Bellatrix?" Draco asked and Hermione paused. She hadn't told Draco what happened the year before but then again… how did _he_ know Bellatrix.

"I got to see her in action last year when she escaped from Azkaban and tried to kill us all." Draco looked puzzled.

"Bellatrix tried to kill you? How is that possible?"

"We went to the department of mysteries last year and Voldemort was there. It turned out a whole bunch of death eaters were there as well and they tried to kill us but Bellatrix only got… She only got someone very close to us all." Her voice faded in sadness. Curses could do evil things and she was learning the worst of them all.

"So it's true." Draco whispered, handing Hermione her wand. "Sirius Black _was_ still alive. My third cousin or something near to that actually escaped Azkaban." Hermione's throat constricted.

"You're related?" She asked. "That means-"

"Yes, Bellatrix is my… I don't even know. The lines get so tangled sometimes it's hard to find even your sister." Draco said.

"It's so odd to think…" Hermione said. "That all of the great wizarding families of the world are somehow related. I would have never guessed had I not seen your sister in the book I was reading the other day. Diana, I think her name was. Correct me if I'm wrong."

"You're wrong about the entire thing, you see…" Draco began. "I don't have a sister. I am an only child."

"That doesn't make any sense Draco. The book said-"

"I don't care what the fucking book said, Hermione! I _don't_ have a sister and that is that." He shouted. "Now do it again. Remember wave like this- No you're arm is moving way too fast. Yes, now just round out the curve and… flick! Good… we may be able to try this soon." He said and Hermione shivered. That is just the opposite of what she wanted to hear.

"I don't want to do this Draco…" She said and Draco growled aloud, throwing himself into an armchair off to the side.

"Do you see where we are, Hermione?" Draco asked and Hermione nodded. "Salazar Slytherin told no one of this room. This is where I found your Gryffindor friend, a member of Hogwarts' staff, one of my housemates, and who knows whom else! This isn't third year magic Hermione." He explained harshly. "This is the real thing. People are dying and more people are going to if we don't finish what we started. It is up to you and it is up to me. Can _you_ deal with the guilt of others dying when we could prevent it with such a simple thing as a spell?"

Hermione shook her head, looking around. The walls were covered with darkly grotesque paintings of war and torture. A fitting study for Salazar…

"You can do it and I am trying help you." He said while standing. Hermione burst into tears, dropping her wand on the ground.

Draco paused while taking in the scene before him. He didn't know why she was crying but that didn't matter. It wouldn't have mattered had he meant to cause her this pain and as he stepped forward and enfolded her into his arms she slowly stopped crying and merely stood there.

"I'm sorry it has to be this way and when it's all over, I promise you will never have to say those words to anyone again." He whispered while running his fingers through her light brown hair.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would you make that promise?" Hermione asked.

"Because I lo- Because I don't like this any more than you do and I think that I would say anything at this point to make you stop crying." Draco said. "I hate it when girls cry… My mother used to cry all of the time when I was younger and… I just don't like it."

"You sounded like a Gryffindor just then." Hermione said quietly and Draco chuckled.

"Okay… I don't like it when girls cry but I like to make them cry." Draco corrected himself.

"You seem to be good at it." Hermione replied. "We're going to be okay, aren't we?"

"Yes." He said while looking down at her.

"I hate it when you do that." Hermione said suddenly turning away.

"Do what?"

"Act so sure of yourself. I ask you the most difficult question I've ever asked myself and you answer it just like that." She said snapping her fingers for affect. "You act so sure…"

"I am sure." He said. "I may cheat, I may lie, and I may not be the most honorable guy in all of Hogwarts but you can trust me when I say that when there it is time to be sure of myself, _I_ know it."

"What do you think Ron and Harry are doing?" She asked, changing the subject as she always did when she sensed the conversation reaching a very intimate level.

"I don't care." He whispered and for the millionth time in the past few months, Hermione felt her knees go weak. It was beginning to become her natural reaction to Draco's flirtatious advances, she realized.

"We should probably finish working…" She breathed, losing herself in his eyes and Draco nodded.

"All right. But you owe me…"

A/N: major fluff I know... I almost gagged as I wrote it but believe me... It's not going to be like this for very long. Talk about foreshadowing, eh? I hope you guys enjoyed it, the next few chapters should be pretty intense. You know what happens when good things happen right> I'll give you a hint. Look up the symbolic meaning of a yin yang. Well... it's balance. Balance is the symbolic meaning. Help me! I need constructive critisism from someone...


	32. Lucius' Pride

Another transition chapter but I think this is the best chappie I've written in a while. It's base and to the point so here it is... P.S... I kind of like it but then again, I made it. Do authors always think their chapters are good? Whatever, I won't remable too much here. BTW I would like to remember my cat today. It has been two months since shepassed on today, May11th... Thanx

Chapter 32: Lucius' Pride

Draco flipped through each magazine, each newspaper, and each article page by page finding nothing significant. He had asked Hermione if he could borrow her book on famous families and the misprint was bothering him more than he would let on.

After the fifth hour looking through the library archives he was about to give up when he came across a familiar name. Narcissa Malfoy… His mother. It was their, his father and mother's, wedding article in Witch Weekly. Looking at the photo, Draco wondered what had happened to his parents.

His mother, now a pale middle-aged beauty, had once been a vibrant, full, bright young woman. A Slytherin, the article said, with a heart big enough to accept even the smallest Hufflepuff. And his father! Lucius Malfoy, he realized, had once been a youth not too unlike himself. Granted, his father's hair was the same length he had kept it his entire life but other than a few other details, Draco could have sworn it was him he was looking at. He had the same light frame, piercing grayish blue eyes, and a sneer at the ready.

Draco lightly touched the picture of his mother who was now waving to someone in the crowd and sighed. But upon closer inspection of his mother's picture he saw a suggestive bulge right below where her hands rested contritely as she smiled. Looking closer, Draco watched her moving self with the utmost care.

"She was pregnant…" Draco uttered. "Pregnant?" With a pang of fear he automatically began counting months and checking dates. "No… they were married when I was born but then… Diana?" Draco looked at the date at the top of the article. "Twenty-one years ago to the month.

Draco read over it, looked at his mother's abdomen, and recalculated all of the dates but he was unable to absorb the information he was gaining. "All right then… so we're looking for about three or four months after this." Now he was looking through the newspapers searching for birth alerts in the wizarding town that his parents said they had bought their first house. _That is if they didn't lie again_, he thought bitterly.

"Here it is… Diana Elaine Malfoy. Born on August 22." Draco paused. She was real… Diana had been only a legend to him, an old Malfoy story used to scare him into obedience, into gross submission.

Turning through the papers he moved thirteen years after her birth and sure enough he found an article marking her as a runaway, a missing teenager of a dark aristocratic family that had all but fallen from grace since Voldemort had fallen. _She was only thirteen when she went missing, left. I was… six years old then. _That's when they had moved… This revelation shook the ground beneath his feet and he began to remember things that, before now, had been only whispers beyond a veil. Just images hidden behind a shroud of uncertainty.

A blond girl entered his mind and Draco remembered things. Happiness when there was little to be happy about and fun when he had been allowed to do no more than sit at his desk studying Latin as a young child.

Standing, Draco slammed Hermione's book shut and knocked all of the articles he had been looking at off of the desk with a rough sweep of his hand. Pansy had known… Everyone knew but him. All of the sudden, Draco felt embarrassment sink into his stomach. He had played the fool. Though he was much less than naïve, he had fallen for his father's basic trick, a trick Draco had often used to gain loyalty. Playing on trust was a nasty Malfoy trick, probably what had lured Narcissa into marrying a death eater.

Rubbing his eyes, Draco let out a strangled groan. Lucius had once said to Draco that he was his pride, that he had sacrificed something so dear to his mother for him that she hated them both for it. Draco knew now what his father said was true. Narcissa did hate them both but now that Lucius was dead… There was only one of them left for her to hate.

Grabbing his parchment with all his mathematics and collected information, Draco walked out of the library, which he now had twenty-four hour access to, and made haste to Dumbledore's office.

Upon reaching the gargoyle Draco found himself stuck. It was almost one O'clock in the morning, the password had been changed, and it was rather dark in this hallway.

Suddenly there was a shuffling behind him and Draco turned, pointing his wand straight in front of him. "_Lumos!"_ He said and his wand came alight. There before him stood Alias Dark.

"What on earth are you doing wandering about at this time of night, Mr. Malfoy?" She asked, her tongue slithering over the words in obvious elation. It had been a while since she had been able to take points from him and she was just brimming with joy at the prospects this situation presented her.

"I need to see Dumbledore." Draco said and Alias shook her head, waving her index finger towards him.

"Our dear headmaster is probably asleep. Beside that, he has more important things to do than listen to you, I am sure." She snarled.

"I am afraid that is where you are quite wrong. In fact, I was just sending another student off to bed when I heard you speaking." Said the soft, wheezing voice of the headmaster. Draco sighed in relief, something he had never thought he would do. "Mr. Potter was sleep walking again."

"I don't believe he was here to see you, headmaster. I was merely doing my duty as a member of the staff here an-"

"I thank you, Miss Dark, but I can handle this one on my own." Dumbledore interrupted and Draco enjoyed the look on the DADA teacher's face as she puffed up defensively.

"I never implied that you couldn't, of course… I'll be heading to bed, then." She muttered grumpily and Draco smirked.

"That would be a good idea, Alias." And Draco watched as the teacher faded into the shadows, cursing in a foreign language that Draco did not recognize. "You wanted to see me? Come in, come in."

And Draco was led once again into Dumbledore's office where he was about ready to explode…


	33. Draco Displeased

"_Tears don't make men weak, desire and ambition do…"_

Chapter 33: Draco Displeased

Draco tossed the papers down on Dumbledore's desk and the old man began rummaging through them, a perplexed look on his aged face.

"And these are supposed to mean?" The man asked and Draco sighed angrily and swept them back into his arms.

"I have a sister… had a sister." Draco said stumbling over the use of the preterit. "You knew about it, I know you did because everyone did. My father knew I wouldn't look through a history book trying to dig up roots because he made me think I knew my roots better than anyone else."

Dumbledore nodded calmly. "I am very displeased. Why was this information not ever shared with me?" He asked, banging his fist on the desk.

"It was not my place to tell you, Mr. Malfoy, now I suggest you calm down and have a seat before I hand you back over to Miss Dark." The old man warned and Draco took a seat, letting out a huff of air as his back hit the cushion. "I'm actually quite curious to discover why she seemed so… eager to punish you."

"It's of little consequence. She holds a mad grudge." Draco explained and Dumbledore nodded. "I don't understand!" He exclaimed.

"What is it you don't understand?" Dumbledore asked and Draco shrugged helplessly.

"Where she went… I don't know where she went." Draco said. "My mother used to talk about her all the time and now that I think about it I think it may have been her way of getting back at my father but… What did he mean when he said he sacrificed her?"

"Exactly how it sounds, Draco. Your father did a great many evil things to secure your ascent in life and Diana was one of them." He said. Pausing, he interlaced his fingertips and stared at Draco very severely. "There is something you must know and the only reason I am telling you is because one, I think you are old enough to know the truth, and second, because I think you _deserve_ to know the truth."

Draco nodded for Dumbledore to continue. "Your mother, Narcissa, was a wonderful woman and great student throughout all her years at Hogwarts. She was even friends with James and Lily Potter. But when she decided to marry Lucius… Things changed." Dumbledore said.

"When murmurs began passing through the halls of the school that something evil was rising everyone took a side." He explained quietly, lowering his voice with each word so that Draco had to lean forward to hear. "There was a club here at this school, I am ashamed to say, that began it all. Begun by Salazar Slytherin's daughter Sirenia centuries before, an exclusive Slytherin group was made. Severus, your head of house, was involved in this _club_ and we found out later from him that this was where Voldemort got nearly all his young supporters including himself. The members of this club called themselves the eaters of death, which at one point meant the invincible, but eventually evolved into what we know today as the death eaters… Your mother and you father were in this club and during her last year at Hogwarts, the year Lucius and she got married, everything about them both changed."

Draco waited for some indication from the old man that what he said was some sort of joke but Dumbledore did not even blink while he looked at the teenage boy.

"She was… pregnant when she graduated from Hogwarts, your mother, and I am afraid she took on the title of wife all too soon. They were married right before graduation and that summer was about the time that everything really took off for Voldemort." He explained. "But after Voldemort was defeated, your father had the notion that you, his sole heir, would be challenged or would lose your status to your sister so… She disappeared. They say she ran away but we all knew, everyone knew how he felt about his girl child that was all too much like her mother… That was when your mother really changed."

"So…my father killed my sister, my mother was a death eater, and everything I ever believed to be true is a lie?" Draco asked and Dumbledore surveyed him carefully above his half-moon spectacles.

"You look sick, maybe I should take you to Poppy…" Dumbledore suggested and Draco stood, numb. "Perhaps this was too much information for one night."

"No… I'm fine considering…" Draco gathered all the papers in his arms closer to his chest and let out a deep breath. _I'm doomed… That bastard planned everything out to the last detail and there's no escaping…_

"You're sure that you're fine?" The old man asked holding his hand out across the table for Draco to shake. Draco felt the soft, warm flesh of Dumbledore's hand and for the first time since he had come to Hogwarts he respected this man and he nodded.

Straightening, Draco walked out of Dumbledore's office and made his way to the prefect dormitories. Holiday would be over in a few days and everything would go back to normal he supposed.

Slowing as he reached the entrance to the commons, Draco felt anxiety build up inside of him. If he entered that room and Hermione was there waiting what would he say to her? He would probably tell her the truth but… but he doubted he would be very kind about it.

He whispered the password and was admitted into the room, alight only by the warm glow of the house-elf-kept fire. As he moved further in, he felt the tension in his stomach fade only to be replaced by a new emotion that he was quite used to now. Disappointment. He had inwardly hoped she would be here. Even Draco knew when he desperately needed to talk but didn't see Hermione.

Plopping down in the red and gold chair next to the fire he sighed, leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and rubbed his forehead. He leaned slowly back and let out a groan as he couldn't fight the torrent of emotions. There were so many that the only three emotions he could easily discern were anger, great sadness, and an even greater helplessness.

His body ached with unreleased tears, which he didn't know he still had, and Draco felt the unfamiliar burning behind his closed lids. But he wouldn't allow even one tear to trace its way from his eye down his cheek because it would inevitably be followed by another, then another, then another, until he dissolved into the sobbing heap of uselessness his father had made him believe he was.

He felt the emotions pass and in their wake he was left utterly exhausted. Now he was just plain tired.

Absorbed in his own thoughts, Draco didn't hear the door squeak open. Nor did he hear the small footsteps as a small sixth year Gryffindor crept from her dormitory to right behind his chair. Only when she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his shoulders did he sense the presence of another person in the room.

"What's the matter? Where have you been?" Hermione whispered in his ear and Draco leaned his temple against hers. "I waited up for you. It's almost one-thirty, Draco. Are you about to cry?"

Draco pulled away when she said this and turned his expression onto the fire where he glared maliciously at the simmering embers in the hearth.

"Draco…" Hermione walked in front of the chair and Draco could have laughed at her appearance. She looked a lot like what Draco's mind imagined a muggle housewife would. Her hair was pulled back but it was obvious she had put no effort into smoothing it down or straightening it before she had. She looked tired like she had been worrying, she was in her pink night robe, but the thing that struck him the most was what the expression on her face said to him. Something he had never seen between his mother and father. Her expression said, "Good evening, honey, how was your day? Tell me all about it…"

His parents had always been too busy to bother wondering what the other did during the day.

"I was just in the library looking at that book of yours and I… I decided to research my family." He said slowly and Hermione sighed.

"And? Did you find something of interest to you?" She asked though he could tell she knew what his answer would be.

Draco took a deep breath and in an instant an anger so deep that it made his blood boil flared within him. He may not have been mad at her but that didn't change the fact that he was mad. Mad that he had been lied to, mad that he felt like a naïve moron, but he was even madder that _she_ cared at all. Taking one look at her he stood so quickly that in reacting she fell backwards on her tailbone with a squeak of surprise.

"Not only did I discover that I had a sister that is most likely dead by my own father's hands but my torture goes a whole step further when Dumbledore tells me that my mother and father were both part of a secret society of Slytherins that solicited the word of Voldemort and recruited most, if not all of his current followers!" Draco shouted as he walked to the hearth. "Very interesting, eh? You were right… You were right once again, Hermione." He snarled.

"I wish I would have been wrong." She uttered as she got up off of the floor and straightened her night robe. "By the way your nostrils are flaring and the look on your face, I presume you must need to talk about it." Hermione inferred and Draco smirked, giving a small, wry chuckle.

"I've been walking in the tracks my father laid out for me over the course of my whole life." Draco spat bitterly. "I thought I had changed something big but I haven't. I am only avoiding the inevitable and I think you knew that… I think everyone knew that." Draco looked down at his fingertips, which were fidgeting nervously atop the mantle.

"I thought that." Hermione stated. "But then I saw that you're not a Slytherin at all, Draco. You're a human just as I am human, not a Gryffindor." She paused, stepping forward. "And to reply to your other statement I would just like to say that you _have_ changed something big. You've changed something so big in fact, that few ever get the opportunity to change it." Hermione looked down at her feet as she spoke now and Draco had to force himself to look away. "Take your father for instance. I don't honestly believe that anyone, let alone Lucius, wants to end up the way he was, the way he was when he died but… Through everything that happened, he was never offered a chance nor the tools to change himself."

"I don't understand…"

"You know all the dogmatic beliefs you had when you came to Hogwarts?" She asked and Draco nodded, not sure if he liked the direction this conversation was going. "Well… have they changed?"

"Of course they have or I would never had… we never would have kissed or… or talked for all that matter." Draco said.

"That's my point."

"No, no, no! You don't see _my_ point, Hermione. You're not getting it!" She cringed as he took an angry step towards her and flinched when he threw his hands up in the air. "Those are things that we think are changed! But the truth is that when I go home this summer I will revert to the same evil behaviors I have been tied to my whole life! Do you understand that?"

"You see that they are evil though… Before, they were normal. You accept the fact that what you were doing and what you were being taught was wrong." Hermione said.

"But they're not…" He murmured. "They're not wrong, just different."

"What your father did to Arthur Weasley was wrong, Draco. I am sure you see that as clearly as I do." Hermione said slowly, trying to control her emotions to get her point across.

"What about what he did- what he _still_ does to _me_! Is that wrong or is that parenting?" He asked.

"It's wrong." She assured him calmly. "It's wrong and you're still suffering from Lucius' mistakes. You need to stop blaming and let go of Lucius and take responsibility for Draco." Hermione stated as she stepped forward, opening her arms to him.

"What would you know about anything… _mudblood._" He snarled and the word rolled floridly off his tongue, leaving a wound deeper than any knife could have at this point in time. Her arms fell beside her. "You know nothing of the convoluted plans and paths my father created or any father creates for his son. I am being groomed for more than this." He said, motioning to the surrounding room. "I am being groomed for more than you, you have to realize this."

Hermione looked so hurt as tears filled her eyes that Draco almost took it back. _Fuck that,_ he thought, _it's her own fault for getting involved._ Reaching up around her neck, Hermione grabbed something, pulled it free from her neck, and threw it on the ground where he heard precious stone and metal shatter.

"I thought we had gotten past this entire stage, Draco but you are such a coward that you keep walking backwards hoping to catch a glimpse of a shortcut or easy way out that you've missed!" Hermione said. "I have lost so much time, effort, and raw emotion in you. Yes, maybe even love! And look… It was for nothing because you won't let go of a ghost." She snapped. "My friends will never trust me again, you know and it is entirely your fault!"

Hermione turned from Draco and walked towards the Gryffindor dorm. But Draco, acting on impulse, thought this was the last opportunity he would ever have to feel her close to him and he leapt forward, pushing her into one of the side-walls. He immediately leaned forward and took her lips into a hard kiss. She went still in shock but a split second later she pushed him away from her and slapped him so hard across the face that he could feel her hand print burning its mark across his pale face.

"You might want to go cleanse yourself." Hermione hissed. "Or better yet, why not just burn your cloak since chances are, it will never come clean again." Hermione turned away from him, utterly disgusted, and walked into her dorm slamming the door behind her hard enough to knock a porcelain figurine off of the mantle.

Draco turned and walked back to the chair. Something crunched under his foot as he sat and he looked down, inspecting the object. It was the mood stone he had given to Hermione… Picking it up, Draco looked at the bent frame in horrified guilt. The stone was crushed, the metal bent, and the chain broken, but it still held the little warmth Hermione's chest had offered it.

_She wore it… I had no idea she wore it…_ And finally, the tears came. Unrestrained and unpredictable, the tears came. He felt the urge to cause harm to himself but knew that little good would come of any self-inflicted wound.

There was something wrong with a sixteen-year-old noble-born, Slytherin boy crying, curled up in the fetal position, on a red and gold armchair, Draco decided and he threw himself onto the cold stone floor where he allowed himself to be consumed in all of the emotions a Malfoy was never supposed to feel.

_Crying_

_It's like a window to your soul,_

_It's like a loss of some control._

_Yet, however weak it makes you feel,_

_It's the only way to truly heal._

_If I could cry for what I long,_

_It'd be for innocence – come and gone._

_I'd cry for the selfish way I act,_

_For the grace and courage which I lack._

_I'd cry for the sufferings of this earth,_

_Cry for the pain I've caused since birth._

_I'd cry for the understanding way I feel,_

_When I take what hurts – and learn to deal_

_I'd cry for my hearts impatient demands_

_And for my thoughts – choked off by my own hands_

_I'd cry for the emptiness I feel inside,_

_For the chance to run, but nowhere to hide_

_I'd cry for the way others have looked at me,_

_With their looks of disgust, or their ugly pity._

_I'd cry for the nights when I've lain awake,_

_Questioning every move that (I) make._

_I'd cry for the (boy), who wants so much to be well_

_And for the voice that screams – (he) deserves this hell_

(A/N): I Give full credit of this wonderful poem to _warped and twisted_ on fictionpress.

The words in brackets were altered because… well, let's face it, Draco's not a girl…


	34. McGonagall Hits Number Six

Chapter 34: McGonagall Hits Number Six

The next week or so went by pretty quickly and before they knew it, classes had begun once again.

Ron and Harry had spent their holiday perfecting and working out all the little details in their plan, Ginny had met the Dursleys through a very unfortunate mistake caused by Fred and George, and Hermione had become more determined than ever to save Draco from himself. But not as a girlfriend… never as a girlfriend.

As Ron had stated it simply upon their reunion, Hermione merely had a dangerously unhealthy attraction to rich, pureblooded, and emotionally damaged men that wanted to dominate and destroy her self-esteem. At that, Hermione had given Ron a large chunk of her opinion about everything that was wrong with _his_ judge of character, which left him blushing and embarrassed in the Gryffindor common room surrounded by laughing friends and housemates.

Amber, it turned out, had dumped Ron right before holiday saying that they needed some time to figure out if a serious relationship was really what they both wanted… Ron was crushed and was more adamant than ever that Harry and him finish their plan because he would be damned if Hermione would date that git when his girlfriend, a respectable Ravenclaw, had broken up with him. Harry had told him it was a selfish reason but Ron seemed to think that it all made sense.

Ginny, who had barely spoken a word to Hermione since their conversation was now following the girl around, chatting about rumors and such. Ginny could obviously see Hermione was preoccupied and figured it was as good a time as any to reconcile their differences.

"What is it today?" Ginny asked and Hermione smiled as she bent over her book and skimmed the chapter they had been asked to read.

"What are you talking about?" Hermione inquired as she dipped her quill in ink and began writing a short sentence summarizing the paragraph she had just read.

"That look on your face. The look says the same thing everyday except it changes from day to day, don't play stupid. You're not good at it." Ginny stated as she took a small bite of toast she had snuck into the library.

"I dunno… NEWT's are very close and… I have a lot on my mind lately. My mother sent me an owl the other day saying that my dad was sick and they were taking him to a special medical treatment facility in England and… well, that can be hard." Hermione said, not wanting to mention her own father in front of Ginny.

"I'm sorry… I know what it's like, you know. You can talk to me about it." Hermione nodded. "So, how are things with Draco?" She asked suddenly and Hermione nearly dropped her quill.

"That's… I don't know… erm…" Hermione was lost for words and as she sat stationary she cursed as a big drop of ink dripped on her parchment. "Now I'm going to have to do this all over again!" She exclaimed with a sigh.

"Hermione, they're just notes. Binns won't notice whether they're perfect or not." Ginny said while patting her friend on the shoulder lightly.

"They're not for Binns though. If I can't read them, what good will they do me to study from them?" Hermione asked, trying to blot the stain with the cuff of her robe.

"If you ask me, I'd say you're a little too stressed out about this whole NEWT thing. You've been studying since the end of last year, you'll do just fine, I guarantee it." Ginny said with a smile that Hermione wasn't able to return.

"This test will decide what I do with my life and I really want to do something great." Hermione said.

"First of all it's you, not this test, that decides what you are going to be and second, I know you'll do something great. You're hell on a broom and your about as smart as McGonagall. You'll do just fine." Ginny insisted when Hermione began shaking her head. "At least you don't have six brothers to follow after. I'm not hilariously funny like Fred and George, I'm not nearly as clever and smart as Percy, Ron is really loyal, and Bill and Charlie are about the most awesome people you will ever meet, they're really cool and they're their own people."

"But you're the youngest. None of the others will ever have anything on you. You'll be spoiled rotten for the rest of your life and you always have six bodyguards no matter where you are. _My_ brother's an asshole." Hermione said and Ginny's eyes opened wide in shock.

"You have a brother? Does he go here?" Ginny asked.

"No, he's a muggle. I think I get enough of him _without_ him going here." Hermione said with a short laugh. "He's just turned eighteen and… well, do you remember Bill or Charlie at that age?"

"No, but mum says Charlie was a handful. He was always sneaking dragons and other giant animals into our house though and mum wouldn't find out until they were too big to be kept under his bed or in his closet." Ginny flipped a page in her magazine and stared wistfully at the witch in the article. "Didn't I ever tell you why Charlie left to study Dragons in the first place?" When Hermione shook her head, Ginny told her. "Well, mum and Charlie got into a great row when Charlie refused to take this alidores calf back to the forest behind our house where he found it because it's mom was dead and he left. Said that mum was an animal killer. That it would just wander around until it died. Two weeks later he sent us a post card from some remote location in the middle east saying that he had found his calling."

"That's really sad… Did he come home to visit often?" Hermione asked and Ginny nodded.

"Oh, yes. He made it his deal to us that he would visit at least once a week but eventually, once a week turned into once a month, then once a month turned into once in a blue moon. Now we're lucky if we see him once a year." Ginny said. "Well, he loves his work and mum isn't exactly accepting about how he's… erm… _changed…_"

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, genuinely interested.

"He's decided to… well, he's adopted quite a style of his own… Last time I saw him he…" Ginny was lost for words though and Hermione waited impatiently for her to say it. She had the oddest feeling that Ginny would reveal Charlie was a cross-dresser but was pleasantly surprised when Ginny finally said, "He's been dressing like a muggle. It's awful really… All those baggy clothes and such. Mum's not very happy about it."

"Muggle's don't dress too badly… especially the boy ones. It's the girls you should be ashamed of. Their clothing, I swear, is all bought in the children's section. You can't walk by a decent pub without seeing half of a woman's wears these days…" Hermione let out a sigh and began skimming again.

"Sounds to me like Hermione's a bit of a conservative…" Ginny said. Pushing her magazine in front of Hermione, she laughed. "These girls are the kind men find attractive." She said.

"Well, if I wanted to be attractive, I suppose I would wear only a strip of material across my frontal region and walk around in shoes that make me look like a whore." Hermione snapped. "I can't think about this right now, Ginny." Hermione said. "There's too much to do scholastically to worry about such silliness."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're beautiful?" Ginny asked, taking the magazine back.

"Yes…" Hermione said, thinking about the time Draco had said she was beautiful.

"Did you like that feeling?" Ginny inquired though she probably knew the answer.

"Well, yes, of course I did. But that doesn't mean I have to hear it everyday." Hermione replied. "I would rather dress the way I do and be ignored all through my school years than dress like that and get a compliment from every single boy in this school every single day." She said, slightly flustered. "Plus… the less people who say it to you, the more likely they are to mean it and that's worth more than… than _that._" She spat motioning to the photo Ginny was looking at, which was bending over seductively and the wizard on the other page nearly drowned in his own saliva that was slowly dripping down the front of his shirt.

"You _are_ one of a kind, Hermione." Ginny said. "With your body and your personality I would be wearing whatever I could to get attention… someone's going to hit the jackpot with you, I can tell." She said. "I just hope you don't waste it all on becoming the next Narcissa Malfoy…" And with that, Ginny said what she had been meaning to say the whole past week. Standing, she patted Hermione friendly like on the shoulder and left the library.

Hermione felt her patience with the young Gryffindor waning as she looked back down at her book that was now covered in bread crumbs. And Ginny had left her magazine on the table for Hermione to pick up. This Weasley was turning out to be a lot like Ron, she decided with a frown. At least Ron minded his own business though…

Draco sat in the library when McGonagall's Transfiguration class entered unannounced. It looked like Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. Catching a glimpse of Longbottom, Draco saw that they were fifth years and that meant…

"Shit." Draco practically dove onto the floor and crawled behind a shelf in the library. He was doing a favor for Snape, who had excused him from his other class, and he had not expected this.

"All right, class. Now I want you to find the book on the famous witch or wizard animagus that you wish to do your report on. For those of you who have chosen to do a report on a specific event or crime committed by an animagus, come over here and regroup so that we may talk about the slightly more difficult project you have a head of you." Draco looked from behind the shelf to see, of course, Hermione walk to meet McGonagall. She was one of only three other students who had chosen the more difficult project and Draco was not surprised to see Weasley and Potter right there beside her along with the annoying Hufflepuff known as Justin Finch-Fletchley.

Draco, in an instant, decided he wouldn't let Hermione's presence in the library keep him from completing the task that Snape had so trustingly assigned him the day before. Draco was to research and submit a report on the legality of a special concoction that Snape wanted to use in the class. The research was something that Snape did not have time to do himself and had entrusted the task to one of his most prized pupils, as he had put it. _Who was Draco to let him down?_

Standing up straight, Draco walked out from behind the shelf and ran headfirst into a small Gryffindor.

"Jesus Christ!" Draco said, rubbing his forehead whereas the Gryffindor was on the floor, hands latched onto her nose, which was bleeding freely. "Can't you Gryffindors ever watch where the bloody hell you're going?"

"Draco Malfoy. What on earth are you doing out of class?" McGonagall asked as she took one look at him then her eyes fell to the girl on the floor. "It's fine, Patil. It'll stop bleeding but stop moving!"

"Snape asked me to do something for him. I didn't come up here to be pummeled by stupid Gryffindors who can't watch where the hell they're going!" He practically shouted.

"Well, well, well." Said an all too familiar voice. "Other Slytherins not good enough so you have to beat on a Gryffindor."

"Shut it Weaselby, the fact that I'm here is none of your business." Draco snarled, turning to the red headed teenager. "Now get away from me before I can no longer resist the urge to curse you into oblivion."

"Boys, knock it off! Potter, take miss Patil up to the hospital wing, you should be able to walk there in your sleep by now and the girl can barely see." She said, helping the small girl up. "Weasley, go and do your research!" She exclaimed and Weasley jumped at the harshness in her voice. "Can you not lead by Miss Granger's example or are you incapable of good decision making?" McGonagall snapped and Weasley turned red and walked over to meet Hermione at a table that was now stacked two feet into the air with books.

"Malfoy… Go do whatever you were told by Severus to do or by Merlin I will have you in my classroom until you are unable to scrub another piece of furniture for as long as you live." Draco, seeing that she was in a testy mood, decided not to challenge her and sulked away to the table he had left his stuff at.

Draco sat down and pulled the book he had grabbed from the restricted section out of his cloak. Setting it down on the table, he opened it slowly only to be met by a howling so terrible that he slammed it shut immediately. But the screaming did not stop until he had hit it a great many times and the cover was slightly bent inwards.

"Looks like a restricted book." Said a knowing voice from behind him and Draco felt the irritation boiling in his chest.

"Looks like you don't know how to mind your own business." He said while standing, the book in his hand.

"Why you didn't just ask Snape for permission doesn't make sense considering he would jump around Hogwarts like a bunny rabbit in a pink skirt for his favorite student." Hermione said.

"This wasn't for Snape, although it is absolutely none of your business." Draco replied, his voice only displaying the slightest hint of amusement at her sudden curiosity.

"Oh, but you see… It _is_ my business. As a prefect, it is my duty to protect the very sacred rules that our headmaster and those before him have set… For all we know, these things they restrict are very dangerous." Her eyes betrayed her as she said this and Draco knew that was not at all the reason she was speaking to him.

"I understand your point and yet I am in complete disbelief that you would bother reciting that little piece of poetry to me when you very well know that I will not heed your warning." Draco replied and Hermione smiled.

"How's Heather?" Hermione asked.

"I don't see what she has to do with anything but she is all well I suppose. A little too close to Blaise Zabini for my comfort, but well all the same." He said slowly, suspicious at her motives.

"The reason I ask is that I have heard quite the nasty rumor that she has been converted from Slytherin to Death Eater status and I figured since you enjoy being brutally honest with those who deserve your coldness the least of all, you might give me the straight answer that I have been denied." Draco had heard every word but had absorbed none of it. Their stiff formality was almost shocking to him.

"I don't know what you mean. Heather is not a death eater, merely a very young idealist. She thinks that many things the death eaters are doing are… well, not half as bad as people make it out to be." He said. "Coming from a royal family in Ireland, I can understand why she sees things in that specific way…"

"So you agree." Hermione spate.

"You twist my words, Hermione. You're trying to trap me and classify me, thus justifying your judgments on my lifestyle." Hermione looked suddenly surprised and Draco could have laughed.

Things weren't going so well for her, he could see. She had small bags under her eyes from lack of sleep and he could tell that she was having trouble focusing on him. It was called book vision, something that happens when one looks at the page of a book for too long without a small intermission.

"Look, Draco. I didn't come over here to be curt with you." She said.

"I think you did."

"And that is besides the point. What you think is of no consequence to me. I want answers. I have no idea what is going on here and I don't like it." She said and Draco let out a small chuckle.

"Welcome to the club, Gryffindor, welcome to the club…" Hermione gave him a nasty glare that was formidable to even his own and he watched her retreating back as she walked back to Weasley who was sleeping atop to cover of one of the books Hermione had set at their table. _Still doing their homework, I see… Gryffindors never change…_

"I don't understand…" Hermione uttered and Auru just stared. "If he is at the library tomorrow I think I'll skip transfiguration… Just once wouldn't hurt. But NEWT's…" She groaned and rolled over.

"I wish I knew what was going on between us. It's like there's this odd static. Like we're not done… like nothing is really over and it drives me crazy." Hermione said but Auru had no reply. 'You know… I wish you could talk back. I'm sure you'd have plenty to say on the issue, wouldn't you?"

The kelltor growled and sat, turning its back to her. Sighing, Hermione pulled her covers out from under her and heard a loud slap as something fell to the floor. She growled as she sat up and leaned over the bed, picking the item up off of the floor.

"Ginny's magazine… I forgot to give it back to her." Hermione flipped open the cover and almost threw it down again but suddenly the urge to look through its pages became overwhelming. As she flipped through them one by one she felt her self-esteem deflate completely.

"These witches are so pretty…" Hermione said. "They're perfect and no one is really like that!" She said. _You've never tried,_ reminded the voice in the back of Hermione's head and she sighed.

"I don't have to to know that it is a waste of time. People don't not like me because of how I look, it's my personality that scares the boys away." She said to herself. "Plus… I'd be wasting hours of my morning getting ready and with NEWT's coming up that's time that I just don't have!" _Then stop complaining…_

Hermione looked over at her desk and smiled. She had finished her report and it was due on McGonagall's desk the next morning. Hermione had done something different and she was quite excited to show her head of house the changes she had made to her already extraordinary writing style.

"Well… it's pretty late Auru and we don't want to be tired tomorrow. It's the start of the last week of freedom. After tomorrow I really have to get hot with studying. I can't afford to waste anymore time." Hermione said and she walked over to her dresser and grabbed her night gown.

As she undressed she subconsciously glanced at herself in the full-body mirror off in the corner. Pausing, she took in every curve and every flaw. She was very thin but had a nice, fleshy, full look about her. She wasn't fat but she wasn't on the brink of death either. "It wouldn't hurt to work out a bit more." She whispered as she pulled her nightgown on over her head.

The last two things Hermione did before she went to be were she put her hair up in a tight pony tale and blew out the two lanterns that filled her room with soft, mellow light.

As she was plunged into darkness she padded across the floor and threw herself onto her bed. After a sharp yip, Hermione apologized to Auru and the dog-like creature would have none of it.

"Goodnight you big brute. Maybe It would have been better for me to let Draco have you, you act a lot like him, you know." Hermione snapped and that was the last straw for the kelltor. Fading into shadow, Hermione watched his shadow form sulk into the corner where he curled up and fell almost immediately asleep. "Stupid animal. Crookshanks would have never treated me this way…" And on that note, Hermione fell asleep, setting herself for an oddly horrible Monday.

Hermione walked into the library with the other Gryffindors and looked around, sweeping the place in search of a certain, unwelcome Slytherin. When there was no sight of him anywhere, she set her bag down on the table and pulled out her long piece of parchment for McGonagall to take a look at.

"Jesus, Hermione. You're done already?" Ron asked looking at his three lines of writing.

"I am very pleased, Miss Granger." Said McGonagall. "And you had one of the harder assignments. Would you mind if I took a look at it, dear?" McGonagall and Hermione shook her head.

"I was going to ask you to anyway, professor. I made a few revisions to my style and…"

Draco heard her words and waited for McGonagall's usual praise but instead her only her harrumphs, sighs, and groans emit from the teachers mouth. He was almost startled…

"I think it's… interesting." Draco sensed the lie immediately. He could tell by the professor's voice fluctuations that she didn't like the work at all. "Longbottom! Two detentions for that little display of clumsiness, now _clean it up!_" Unbidden by Draco, his list of things that made Hermione angry popped into his mind and he waited for it to continue. So far she had done numbers one (lie) and two (wronging the innocent)… "Actually Longbottom make that four because you put me in a foul mood." _That's three…_(having the potential to be cruel without reason) "Miss Granger, I want to be frank with you… This is… This is definitely _not_ your most commendable work I have seen." _Ohhh… there's four _(She's been wronged herself) Draco took the whim to look out behind his little table in the corner of the library and saw the look on Hermione's face. She was pissed, he wasn't surprised to see and he could tell that McGonagall was still going at it. "I would expect this work from a Hufflepuff. Perhaps I should become the head of house for Hufflepuff…" _She was really going for it with disloyalty. Just walk away…_This definitely needs revising. I would suggest returning to your old style, Miss Granger." She said and handed Hermione her paper back, turning to walk the other way.

_Smart woman…_Hermione looked abashed as she let the paper fall to the floor and Draco's heart stopped when he saw McGonagall turn back. _Abort, abort! Was she stupid? No, McGonagall, turn away! Resist the urge to correct her!_ "Your explanation of why Tantric did it is completely ill thought out. He was merely trying to make money for his family…"

Draco saw the expression on her face and he knew she had snapped. It was no longer Hermione there, he assured himself as she took the paper in her hands and tore it into three million pieces.

"I have done nothing but work and work and work and work for you and _this _is what I get!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. "I liked it!"

"I was merely suggesting-"

"No, you were telling, you were correcting!" Hermione said, pointing a finger in McGonagall's direction and the teacher looked absolutely shocked.

"Miss Granger! I suggest you lower your voice this instant!" McGonagall said. "I am afraid you may be facing a detention if you keep this up."

"_Oh no!_ Not a detention." She said, covering her mouth with her hands. "Is that the worst you can do?" She asked, placing her hands defiantly on her hips and Draco smirked. Wow, was she in a mood.

"Hermione, calm down. You're yelling at our head of house-"

"Stay out of it Ronald!" She said and he shut up and fell back. Potter, however, figured that he could do better (as usual) and he got it much worse. She cursed, oh boy did she curse at the boy who lived and McGonagall had finally had enough.

"Dumbledore's office this instant. Ronald, Potter, you two are in charge. If anything is out of place when I return you both will get detentions." And she followed Hermione as she stormed out of the library, hell at her heels.

"Wow…" Potter said…

_I thought I'd never see the day that McGonagal hit number six…_ Draco smiled. So there was a thing or two that McGonagall to do wrong in Hermione's eyes… And the rest of the day, Draco was walking on clouds…

"I've gotten detention." Hermione said sadly and Ron laughed aloud.

"And you're surprised?" Harry said. "You should had seen your face… I honestly think that the Bloody Baron would have ran." He said and joined in Ron's laughter.

"I just want appreciation… Now what am I going to do? I have to rewrite the paper- it's due on the same day yours are- and I have a detention on Wednesday." Hermione said counting off everything she had to do.

"Be happy. Poor Neville got four and all _he _did was trip and knock over a shelf or two." Said Ginny who had just entered. "He's pretty upset about it. I guess four detentions is the worst he's ever gotten."

"Oh, McGonagall isn't going to follow through." Hermione stated matter of factly. "She'll see reason before it comes time for Neville to serve."

"And you know this?" Ginny asked.

"McGonagall is the epitome fairness. Think about it. Has she ever done an injustice to any one of us?" Hermione asked and they all shook their heads. "See?"

"I'm shocked to know you're still defending her. From the way you shouted you'd think she was Snape." Harry said. "Now _he_ would have deserved it."

"If only it _had_ been Snape." Ron said with a dreamy look on his face and Hermione guffawed.

"You two are honestly hopeless." Hermione said though she had a smile on her face. "Hey… Do we have any plans for this week? Where's Hagrid been lately?"

"He's on a mission for the order. Told me before he left over break." Harry replied.

"We haven't had his class yet, have we? I wonder who the substitute will be…" Hermione hoped it wasn't someone that would make her want a new teacher…


	35. When A Mudblood Gets Angry

Hey guyz! Long time no hear from, eh? I've been so busy lately. I just started driver's ed. And… well, that takes up most of my time. I'm on break though, so expect great things. This chapter was kind of between a transition and an introduction to a new obstacle they must overcome. Have fun...

Chapter 35: When a Mudblood Gets Angry

Hermione sulked out of McGonagall's classroom at one forty seven on Thursday morning utterly exhausted.

McGonagall had thought of quite the fitting punishment for Wednesday's detention and Hermione had to admit she wasn't all that eager to yell at another professor for a good long time. During the course of her almost five hour detention, Hermione had scrubbed the classroom spotless, organized all of McGonagall's old papers and some new one's, and created a lesson plan for the next year's fifth year transfiguration students.

"Now you know what it is like to be a teacher." McGonagall had said. "We do a lot more than correct and nag, Miss Granger. Teaching is an art and now that you have learned that art I doubt you will be abusing it…" Hermione had nodded vehemently hoping to be let go early. No such thing happened.

"It's almost two in the morning, Miss Granger. I have kept you a bit longer than I intended. No harm done, though." Hermione had sighed, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. "You may go. I suggest you go straight to bed though. You have only a limited amount of time to sleep before classes begin and NEWT's are next week. Don't want to get off schedule right before testing…"

"Thank you professor..."

As Hermione walked down the darkened hallways she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being followed. She may not have heard anything and or seen anything strange but she could _feel_ someone or something watching her, following her every move with their eyes.

Though she was exhausted, she could not help but speed her pace as she turned through the maze of corridors. Eventually she lost all sense of direction and just began turning around random corners trying to throw of whatever was bent on scaring the living daylights out of her.

"Where am I?" She asked herself ten minutes later. She was in a secret corridor all right and she was no longer being followed but now she was terribly lost. It seemed as though she had chosen the darkest, eeriest, and emptiest hallway to get lost in. Right in front of her hung the creepy portrait of an aristocratic woman. Hermione had recognized immediately that it was a muggle piece of art for it did not move.

"All right… I took a right, then a left, then I walked through the Durmstrang tapestry and… I'm here." She told herself. 'We've got this… All I have to do is turn around, make a left then make a right and then I'm… Still lost!"

Suddenly the portrait in front of Hermione disappeared and someone stepped through the doorway that had appeared out of nowhere. Hermione threw herself against the wall, flattening her body as far back as she could.

"Come on now, get out you useless creature!" Hissed the voice over his shoulder and Hermione's heartbeat accelerated. She recognized the voice but she couldn't place it to a face. "Get moving, we have to get this to Dumbledore."

"Lupin?" Hermione whispered as she stepped from the wall and the shuffling ahead of her stopped. The wizard lit his wand and suddenly, Hermione was standing face to face with none other than Remus J. Lupin, their former Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher…

"Hermione? What on Earth are you doing about the castle at night?" He looked tired, not at all unusual for him and Hermione felt apprehensive.

"I had detention and I got lost." Hermione replied honestly and Lupin looked surprised. Hermione though, had a question of her own that she wanted answered. "Erm…Who were you talking to, professor?" Hermione asked.

"Oh… This little bundle of burden." He said, pulling on a leash.

"Auru!" Hermione exclaimed, leaping forward to grab the creature Lupin held captive. "How did you get out?"

"You know this little kelltor?" He asked. "How?"

"I must have been mistaken… this isn't Auru. My Auru's not purple… There's more than one at Hogwarts?" Hermione asked.

"Snape informed me that there was a pack running about in reclusive places." Lupin said while he yanked on the leash. The kelltor growled and Hermione leaned forward, picking it up.

"Shhh." She cooed and Lupin let go of the leash. "A whole pack?"

"Yeah, and since I am the replacement groundskeeper and Filch is sick, Snape so kindly insisted that I be the one to take care of it." Lupin said bitterly and Hermione nearly dropped the kelltor in her arms.

"You're the replacement groundskeeper?" Lupin nodded. "That means you're the Care of Magical Creatures professor then. Just while Hagrid's gone on his mission right?" Hermione asked and Lupin looked surprised that she knew as much as she did.

"I should have assumed you knew. I will be teaching Care of Magical Creatures classes until Hagrid returns, yes." He said.

"What do you plan to do with all the kelltors you find?" Hermione asked, patting the purple one she held on the head and making odd noises in its face. This one seemed to like her a lot more than her own did.

"They'll probably be put down-"

"Put down? What?" Hermione asked and the kelltor gave a little groan that made her heart ache.

"Yes… Put down or Hagrid will take them and attempt to teach you all about how they're minds work." He said, holding his arms out for the small creature. Hermione handed the female kelltor over to Lupin without hesitation and he smiled. "Hagrid won't let them be killed, don't worry about it, Hermione."

Hermione nodded, though the look on her face was still one of apprehension. "Hagrid will probably breed them though." She said with a smile and Lupin nodded, trying to gain control of it.

"So you kept one as a pet, did you? How did you train it?" Lupin asked. "These creatures seem to have a mind all their own."

"Oh, Auru is far from trained." Hermione laughed. "He's a selfish little pet but… But it keeps my mind off of Crookshanks."

"What's happened to Crookshanks?" Remus asked, remembering how the cat had guarded Sirius' life from Harry during the year he had taught at Hogwarts.

"Oh… He wandered into the forbidden forest… They think he was killed by a… by a-"

"Werewolf?" Lupin asked and Hermione nodded.

"That or a raccoon…"

"Don't worry about saying it, Hermione." He said slowly. "It's not like the word itself can make me transform."

"I know… I just don't want to offend you." Hermione replied and an uncomfortable silence fell between them.

"You should probably head to bed, then. I won't have you sleeping on Hagrid's paddock tomorrow." Lupin said with a wink. "Besides, I'll probably need you and your two friends at full strength to defend me when everyone realizes who's back, eh?" Lupin said and Hermione frowned.

"I'll see you tomorrow…" She said, turning. "Oh! Professor…" Hermione began and Lupin paused.

"Yes, Hermione?"

"Who was subbing before you?" She asked and he shrugged.

"A professor… Kettleburn or something of the likes, I'm sure. I'll see you tomorrow, Hermione. Goodnight now." Hermione waved and turned down the corridor.

Now that she had the sense to pull out her wand, the hallways weren't nearly as dark and she finally found herself in a place she definitely recognized: the transfiguration hallway. That hallways where she had met Lupin had turned out not to be a shortcut at all…

Once she finally made it to her room, she threw herself onto her bed and fell to sleep almost immediately, clothes and all.

Hermione ate her lunch very slowly, her eyes barely open, and Harry patted her on the back softly. She jumped and knocked her juice all over her homework.

"Are you going to be all right for Care of Magical Creatures?" Harry asked and Hermione scrambled to fix the papers she could salvage.

"I'll be fine as long as I don't get another five hour detention!" She hissed. "I swear… I think McGonagall did it on purpose." Hermione accused. "She knows I can't function without the minimum of sleep required for our age group."

"I think she was trying to teach you that yelling at teachers will not be accepted." Said Ginny as she joined the table and stuffed a piece of bacon in her mouth and took a drink of her juice.

"Where have you been?" Harry asked.

"Seeing to Neville, thank you very much." Ginny snapped. "I don't have to be in the same place at the same time every day do I? Please tell me if I need to set my schedule in stone and make it work around you."

"Hey now…" Harry said. "What's wrong with Neville?"

"It looks like Hermione was right but Neville didn't know so he wandered around the castle all last night." Ginny said sadly. "He thought he didn't remember where the detention was and he looked for candlelight all night until Snape, I know! Of all people- Caught him and gave him another detention!" She finished and took another drink. "I've just now gotten him to calm down. It turns out some Ravenclaw found him huddled outside of McGonagall's classroom at four in the morning after Snape had gotten through with him because he couldn't remember the password to Gryffindor tower."

"Wow…" Hermione uttered. "Poor Neville. I wonder why I didn't see him after I got out of detention with McGonagall."

"He'll probably be as tired as you if not more so." Ron said. "And who knows what kind of substitute we'll have."

"Substitute!" Hermione exclaimed suddenly. "I've just remembered." She said, smacking herself on the forehead. "Lupin is our COMC substitute until Hagrid gets back. I ran into him last night and he's just come yesterday. That small witch from fourth year was subbing until now."

"Lupin?" Harry asked in disbelief. "Are you sure?" Hermione could sense the eagerness in Harry's voice and it made her throat close.

"Yeah… I just talked to him last night." Harry smiled. He hadn't seen Lupin since summer and… well, they had a lot to talk about. Hopefully this would help Harry cope with his loss of Sirius in a bit more of a healthy manner.

"Wow…" Ginny said. "I can't wait until tomorrow then. But how is everyone going to take him being a… well, you know?" Ginny asked, voicing everyone's worries all at once.

"It doesn't matter." Harry interrupted. "We'll take it as it comes. I'm just glad someone from the order is at Hogwarts besides Dumbledore. Things have been happening and there's little that Dumbledore, as headmaster, can do about it."

"Yeah. Maybe he can knock some sense into Hermione here. Dating Draco Malfoy…" Ron agreed with a laugh and only a second after it had left his mouth did he have a rather large sausage stuffed up his nose.

"And the next time you even come close to butting into my personal life you will soon find there are other, more sensitive body cavities that would love to get their hands on a sausage just like that one." Hermione snarled viciously as she took a bite of her lightly buttered toast.

"Ohhh." Ginny mocked. "Ronald's in trouble now. But seriously, Hermione. He's not all that wrong-"

"Come on guys, it's not our place to tell Hermione who she can and cannot date… That's a decision only she can make and if she wastes it on that git of a Malfoy all we can do is be there for her to pick up the pieces." Harry said in an almost noble voice that reminded Hermione of Dumbledore.

"Right…" Ron said, his voice trailing off into nothing.

"Can you pass the eggs, Harry?" Ginny asked but Hermione's mind could not switch gears.

"You all make it seem like I'm in love with the fellow." She said, standing. "I'm not. I can assure that. But that doesn't change the fact that it is absolutely none of your business." She grabbed her books from the table, shoved her papers into her bag and left, heading down Hagrid's hut where the lessons would take place.

"The werewolf?" Spat Draco as he reached the paddock and set his bag down next to him with a flourish.

"Ah… Lucius' boy, Draco I believe your name was." Lupin questioned.

"You can call me Malfoy, werewolf." Draco snarled, his lip curling up in disgust. "Where's the old brute? Gotten himself eaten, I'd wager."

"He's sick." Was the curt reply.

"I can't even believe they'd let him on campus again. I heard he almost killed two students in third year." Someone whispered and Remus felt his confidence falter. He wanted people to know but he wanted them to understand.

"Well class, since you're all here, I guess our lesson should begin." He said, almost pacing. "Considering the slightly odd circumstances, I figured our first lesson should be about… me." He said and there were whispers all around the paddock. "Most of you have probably heard that I am a werewolf and more than one of you is uncomfortable with that knowledge, a bit fidgety one could even say." He said, turning his attention to Neville Longbottom, one of the students he remembered more clearly. "But I assure you that my lycanthropic transformations have nothing to do with me and I will show you how that is possible today if you will all please gather round."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all stepped closer whereas everyone else hesitated. "Come on! Get over yourselves, maybe you'll learn something!" Ron shouted.

"Like how to live without an arm?" Draco cut in. "I'd rather not."

"It's not even close to full moon you git." Hermione said.

"It's a little too close for my comfort actually…"

_What the hell is his problem?_ Hermione asked herself. "Oh yeah, he's a Malfoy…" She uttered and Ron looked at her questioningly.

"Thank you three, oh you've come to join us you five. Well, this will be quite the lesson then…"

An hour and some odd minutes later Ron, Hermione, and Harry were about to leave the paddock when Remus approached.

"Thank you three… I see things haven't changed much since I went here myself." He said wistfully. "Harry… I was wondering if you'd like to meet with me later in the week. I'm curious to know how you've been faring and what you've been up to."

"Sure." Harry replied immediately.

"Well, you three, I'll see you next week. Off to classes now." And they all three watched as Remus made a nervous, habitual circle around the perimeter he was expected to teach on to inspect the condition of all the equipment.

"Harry-"

"Yeah, you guys can use my invisibility cloak." He said and began walking up the hill. He looked sad, almost perturbed at the sight of the way Lupin was acting so nervous and scared. Something was going on…

"Thanks." Ron replied and Hermione nodded in tired agreement but she had other things on her mind, like how many ways she could kill Draco and get away with it. He was completely out of line and she would make sure he knew it.

Hermione waited in the prefect commons for almost three hours for Draco to show up and when he finally did she immediately noticed he was inebriated. _That_ was how _he_ handled things…

"Oh… Granger. I see you've been awaiting my arrival with much anticipation." He slurred and Hermione guffawed.

"Yes, if only to tear you to pieces. What the hell is your problem with Lupin/" She asked and Draco smirked.

"Don't tell me you don't know… He's a werewolf." He said as if this explained everything he had said this afternoon.

"I k_now_ that you git. H, I can't talk to you when you're not sober." She said and, pointing her wand at him and uttering a few choice Latin words, Draco suddenly stood upright and glared very seriously.

"You just took away the only fun I've had in weeks."

"If that's true, you're more pathetic than I originally assumed." Hermione quipped, glad that they would be having this conversation with him sober.

"Back to the judgmental, stick in the mud Hermione, eh? I'm glad I wasn't around for the big reformation." He snarled.

"Me too. You might have decided I was too disgusting to survive." Hermione said bitterly.

"I never said you were disgusting…" He muttered and Hermione crossed her arms over her chest.

"But you say Hagrid's disgusting and mudbloods are disgusting. I'm like Hagrid, I am of mixed descent as well." She explained as if she was speaking to an infant.

"Yes well… you're different I suppose and don't go off asking me how… I don't know. Hagrid is… he's half giant. How can you like the vile vicious things?" He asked and Hermione smiled.

"That's not Hagrid. His mother was like that… not him. How I see it is…" She bit her lip, thinking. "He's just a bit too tall and his heart's just a bit too big to accommodate every single person's wishes. You see?"

"No… I see that he is a giant just like I see Dumbledore as an old crack pot who teaches parlor tricks and I see you as…"

"As? As what? A passing attraction? A game?" Hermione shouted. "I'm done playing mind games with you Draco now make up your mind. You accept me, my friends, and everyone I know and trust or you don't accept me at all."

"I… _Can't_. I just can't, Hermione and if you only knew… if you knew, you would understand." He said.

"No, I wouldn't. Say the word and all this can just disappear, Draco, just like you want. Everything can just go back to normal, you hating me and me… me hating you." Hermione choked on the words and hoped with all her being that he wouldn't say the words that would send her crashing back down to earth.

"Okay, suppose I say this word," Draco weighed aloud. "I lose everything that is keeping me alive physically as well as mentally or I could ask you for a hug and a kiss and everything can be all better. Are those the choices you're giving me? Because they suck."

"You can do whatever you want but there have to be rules and I think you know that. You can't just throw your little fits and expect me to be there when you realize you were way out of line, you can't insult everything I know and love, and above all you can't send yourself willingly down that path of self-destruction you seem so bent on taking." She said, sighing. "I can't watch you kill yourself just like I told Harry the other day. It's hard to watch someone you think you know lose themselves to things other people get over and walk away from."

"All right…" He said and Hermione was taken aback.

"All right? That's it?" She asked.

"Yes…" He looked down at his feet and she crossed her arms over her chest.

"We should really look into you being bipolar." Hermione said quietly. "Oh and have I mentioned Lupin yet?" She asked suddenly remembering the disrespect he had shown their substitute and one of the best teachers she had ever known.

"No, but you might as well let me have it for that too." Draco said sullenly.

"Lupin is one of the best teachers we have ever had the luck to have at this school and to make mean and malicious comments about a small issue-"

"Small issue! You must be crazy, Hermione! Werewolves attack humans _every_ day. It doesn't matter whether their woman, children, infants, or full grown men, they kill whatever meat they can find!" He exclaimed as if she was stupid. "You're absolutely right that I shouldn't fear my life when forced to be around one." He said, slapping his forehead.

"Lupin's not like that-"

"Lupin's not like that, Hagrid's not like that, Dumbledore's not like that, nobody's really how they seem at all are they, Hermione?" He asked. "It frightens me that you find yourself comfortable in such company."

"Well… Maybe you need to be frightened. Maybe you should be just scared enough to actually get to know these people that you treat like dirt because of their heritage. Now _that_ would be frightening!" She said loudly.

"You're right, it would be." Draco admitted, knowing what his reply would cause.

"You are so arrogant!" She shouted and turned, walking into the Gryffindor prefect dorm, slamming her door behind her.

"Now that that's over with…" Draco uttered with a smirk. Even though she had said the last word, he had won the argument and he knew that tomorrow it would be over… or so he hoped.

A/N: YAY! Lupin's back! Is anyone else excited? Expect to see a lot of him. If you're a Lupin lover, you won't be disappointed. Hope you liked it…


	36. A Day or Two of Solitude

YAY! I'm back in the game guys and I'm better than ever. Thanks to Carrie(anonymous), terratasha, dracoNmione, and everyone who was kind enough to offer a solution to my seemingly sotry-ending problem. Thank all so much, it's only with your help that I was able to continue with this.

Chapter 35: A Day Or Two of Solitude

Over the next few days, Draco saw just how wrong he could be about Hermione. She said not one single word to him unless it was school or arithmancy related and she almost refused to look at him. He had no idea how much her demeanor could change and now that he saw it… well, he didn't like being ignored before and now… Now he hated it…

"So is it a banshee or woodork?" Draco asked Hermione who shrugged and pointed to his book. "Right… the old textbook." He sighed, looking forlornly down at the moldy pages of his Herbology book. It was of little matter that he was not in Herbology at all, but in potions.

"Have you been practicing the spell?" Draco asked quietly and Hermione gave him the dirtiest look he was sure she could muster.

"Don't you say a word about that in here." She hissed. "Snape's not exactly a stranger to overhearing conversations that are none of his business, you know." Hermione spat.

"Snape's cool…" Draco said with a smirk. He was on a roll. For a second he wondered why on earth he was enjoying this so much but then he was suddenly reminded of the kind of Slytherin he was. The Malfoy kind. He used to eat little Gryffindor firsties for breakfast and beat the hell out of the older ones for the accompanying entertainment. It was no wonder that this little bit of torture held so much joy for him, after all, it _had_ been a while since he had felt the urge to satisfy this less savory part of his personality and he doubted she would prefer for him to save it for the ickle firsties...

"So, are you going to answer or will I be left to wonder until you blast me to pieces?" He asked and Hermione's lips tightened in discomfort. _Good… she was still nervous about using the spell… at least she didn't want to kill him._

"You're getting some sick pleasure out of this aren't you?" She asked and Draco thought about it for a moment then nodded.

"All I want out of the whole deal is a few civil words here, maybe a kiss there." He said with a smile and Hermione, though she wasn't exactly mad, only glared, letting the corners of her mouth twitch. He was getting somewhere.

"Well if you aren't the same arrogant little ferret-"

"Miss Granger, Mr. Malfoy, would you like to carry out the rest of your conversation in detention or hold your tongues until you are safely out of range of my ears?" Snape's sardonic voice was quiet but ever syllable left them shivering and Draco leaned back carelessly and closed his Herbology book. "I'll take this," He said, snappishly slamming it shut with one hand. "You can get it after NEWT's."

"But I have to study!" Draco protested loudly and Snape shrugged as if the matter were beyond his control.

"I am sure, Mr. Malfoy, that you have more than one _friend_ whom can loan you a book or at least stand to be in your company long enough to make sure you understand the mediocre art of Herbology." Snape gave a quick tap on the desk and decided to add a last, stinging comment. "If you're worried about Herbology Mr. Malfoy, I would suggest that you not bother taking NEWT's at all." Snape paused, placing the book in his robes. "However, potions should be your main focus considering the grading scale. You all must remember that the grade you get on that test affects twenty percent of your overall potions grade- Longbottom! Pay attention! You of all people, writing…" And Snape walked the other direction spouting off about irresponsibility, incompetence, and worst of all clumsiness. Draco almost felt sorry for the poor klutz… Almost.

Draco walked into his dorm utterly exhausted but paused suddenly as soon as he entered. There was a boy on his bed and it sure as hell wasn't Draco. He had dark, wavy hair that would have fallen past his shoulders had it not been held in place by a small, intricately designed band. His eyes were dark and gave him one look before returning to the magazine he held loosely in his hands.

Draco started towards him angrily. "Who the hell do-"

"Draco!" Hermione exclaimed as she bustled into the room, blankets and pillows in her hands. She pointed her wand at an area in the corner and uttered something and a bed appeared. After she enchanted the sheets to tidy themselves she turned back to face Draco, a competitive look on her face.

"How the hell did _you_ get in here?" He asked and Hermione shrugged holding a pair of oddly shaped keys in her hands.

"Dumbledore gave me the keys." She explained, looking nervously to the moron in _his_ bed. "You will be sharing a dorm with a visitor who it seems, had a little problem with his time turner."

"The hell I will be. Why can't he and Weaselby share a bedroom?" He asked, throwing his bag down.

"Because, it seems that Dumbledore thinks you and he have more compatible personalities. As it turns out, his house is the equivalent of the Indian Slytherin." Hermione explained.

"Indian?" Draco asked and Hermione nodded.

"His school learns apparation fairly early and they all use time turners to get to their classes and when he used it and was stranded, her figured he could apparate properly. Though he thought he knew what he was doing… he was unpleasantly surprised by ending up here at Hogwarts." Hermione said and Draco was shocked at how calm she seemed, almost excited. "His name is Daniel Wright, I guess his mother was European and he's a sixth year, just like us. He speaks limited English and… please be nice, Draco." Suddenly Draco realized why she went rambling off about his background. She was hoping if he knew a bit about the kid, he would like him.

"He won't be bunking with me. Let him sleep in _your_ room and you and I can share this one." Draco suggested semiseriously and Hermione's frowned deepened into a glare. "That's a no…"

"Dumbledore knew you would be apprehensive-"

"Apprehensive? I flat out refuse-"

"So, he's offering either extra-credit or money, take your pick." Draco could tell by the tone of her voice that his choice mattered to her just as much as it mattered to Dumbledore but for a very different reason.

"Don't you try to bribe me! What do you think I am? A politician?" Draco asked and Hermione smiled a bit, her face borderline between worry and hopefulness and Draco felt the urge to deny the Indian kid just to wipe that look of her face but the other part of Draco, the one that seemed to dominate him as of late would not allow it. "Fine! I'll take the freaking idiot. Now get out!"

"Do you want to study Herbology later?" Hermione asked as she reached the door and Draco was taken aback. _So… good deeds didn't go unrewarded? I'll store that little tidbit for later…_

"You bet…"

"What about you Daniel?" Hermione asked and the boy looked up from his odd magazine and smiled, nodding.

"Hermione-"

"It's settled, out in the common room at eight tonight. If Daniel doesn't show up, I'll assume it's murder." Hermione added so only Draco could hear and he growled under his breath.

"You can be so…"

"I know Draco, I know. Life is so hard for the little rich boys sometimes…" She said and that comment shut him up.

"You little-"

"Bye then!" and Hermione closed the door, laughing to herself all the way to her room.

"So… you're name is Daniel?" Draco asked and the kid didn't even look at him. "Do you have a nice family?" He asked and again there was no response. "Do you understand English?" Draco asked, slower this time.

"Yes, I do. Now can you shut up and let me read. I don't talk to American wizards, you disgust me." Draco almost laugh until he realized the little git was completely serious.

"I'm insulted." Draco said, placing a hand on his chest in feigned hurt. "I'm not American… I was born and raised in Western Europe. I'm a proud brit."

"You sound American." But when Draco tried to reply, the boy held up his hand to silence him, an honest look of utter disgust on his face and for the first time in Draco's life, he imagined he knew what it felt like to be a mudblood…

"Do you learn different spells in India?" Hermione asked, leaning over the table. She was very interested in this foreign wizard and Draco could tell the foreign wizard was _very_ interested in her.

"Yes… But mostly, they, uhh… they do same things. We learn to fly but not on brooms." He paused. "I see you have very nice… facilities (slaughtering the word)."

"Yes, we English pride ourselves in doing the best we can… So… what kind of wand do you have?" Hermione asked and Daniel groped in his robe pockets.

"Here it is. 13… uhh… inches and two sanimeters… right?" Hermione nodded. "The wood is… cedar? Imported from Germany."

"What is the core?" She asked and he smirked.

"Our cores in India are very… meaningful. Many of the creatures we have in India are…"

"Precious?" Hermione suggested.

"Secret." Draco interrupted and Daniel nodded, throwing Draco an unappreciated glare.

"I see. Is it an animal?" Hermione asked.

"What don't you understand, Hermione?" Draco asked. "Stop giving the poor kid the third degree. He's already told you he doesn't want to tell you-"

"I would be delighted to let you know, Ermine." Daniel said smoothly. "This is very… private information that I only share with… uhh… those who are very special." He paused. "It is also a ritual at our schools. When we propose to our loved ones we exchange that… uhh… secret as a… sort of… vow."

"What a charming ritual!" Hermione said, clapping her hands and Draco's mind was going crazy. This kid was driving him crazy. Hermione was driving him crazy. _What a charming ritual!_

The more Hermione found out about Daniel, the more interested she became. It turns out he wasn't as far close in time as she was led to believe. Daniel was born in 1897 and when she asked him how he could be so calm about what the future looked like he answered, "My people have had the gift of time travel for many thousands of years, you think this is the first time anyone has seen this? I myself have been in this time twice and I've gone further than you can imagine."

"Isn't that dangerous, to see the future?" She asked.

"I know what to expect and if that is dangerous, then nothing is as safe as it seems…"

"Okay, so you are not American." Daniel admitted with a loud sigh and Draco laughed triumphantly and shut his book entitled _The Malfoy Heritage, a compilation of facts about one of history's most notorious pureblooded wizarding families._ "You are still arrogant and obnoxious. I don't see how Ermine puts up with your constant… uh… sarcasm."

"First of all, it's Her-Mi-O-Ne." Draco said, enunciating on every syllable. "Second off, I would have to say you're not exactly the easiest guy to get along with yourself. What's this thing you've got against Americans? They may be stupid but what'd they ever do to you?"

"They just… they are… uhh… disgusting." Daniel said. "They pollute the world with their ideas of freedom and democracy and their offspring are…"

"Let me guess… Disgusting?" Daniel nodded.

"I used to know an American." Draco said. "She was the exact opposite of what you just described-" But Daniel would have none of it.

"Don't defend them to me. You are wasting your breath."

"And now I can see that."

Later that night as Draco sat in the library reading over the final translation of the new spell, he pondered over what Daniel said and it truly bothered and frustrated him. What kind of dogmatic beliefs that kid had! How could something on so large a scale be so… black and white. _Pureblooded and impure-blooded? _Asked Draco's mind. So that was what was bothering him subconsciously?

"There is a big difference… I mean werewolves!" _Not werewolves, a werewolf._ His mind replied. _And the man himself has not been at all unkind to you…_ "He's a vicious animal!" Draco justified. _No… he's both man and beast but the only side you have seen is man and Hermione has seen both and it should say something to you about the man if she is still defending him… Maybe you owe Lupin a bit more respect than you have shown… Maybe Lupin can be both man and beast and still be a good wizard…"_Fine! You win…" _and that all came from your own mind!_

"Stop bragging…" He said to himself but inwardly he was thinking very important thoughts…_I think I owe someone an apology…_

"I'm sorry." Draco coughed and Remus Lupin was actually surprised, no- more like shocked.

"For what?" He asked a lot more calm than he actually was.

"I haven't been very kind to you…" Draco muttered. "And I realize and respect what kind of courage it must have taken you to show up at Hogwarts for the third time and still be so… even headed."

_Had that really come from a Malfoy's mouth?_ _It certainly reeked of Slytherin mockery, maybe even Malfoy trickery. _Then again… Lupin had been apprised of a certain odd situation at Hogwarts from Harry… It turns out that Miss Granger has had quite the influence over Mr. Malfoy over the past few months… "Did Hermione put you up to this?" He asked, letting his paranoia reach a sickening point.

"No… she doesn't even know I'm here… nor is it any of her business." He made sure to add, disgust in his voice and Lupin smiled. _So the rumors were true…_

"Then I thank you for this little visit and I hope you will be more… _teachable_." Lupin said with a smile. "Say, is that time turner boy from India classing up with Slytherins or Gryffindors? I heard from a very reliable source that you and this boy have taken quite well to one another…"

"Hermione?" Draco asked and Lupin gave a shrug that answered his question. "Yeah… I think rooming with him is enough. He eats like a pig, snores like one, and I swear, if I didn't make him shower, he would opt not to…" Draco said and Lupin chuckled. "He had never even used a tooth brush before I couldn't stand it any longer and conjured one up for him." Draco sighed, leaning comfortably against Lupin's desk. "I swear! I don't know how those bloody historical people survived without proper hygiene. I mean honestly! How they avoided diseases and extinction is beyond me…"

The room went silent and suddenly the comfortable turned very tense…

"I should be headed up to the library. NEWTS are near…" Draco said and Lupin nodded.

"Next week right?" Draco groaned while nodding and Lupin laughed. "Have fun, good luck, and thank you Mr. Malfoy. I could do with another ally."

"You could do with a thousand more, I say." Draco said seriously and Lupin nodded.

"Don't I know it…"

Draco was the first one done in the hall and as he raised his hand and Snape came from the staff table and picking up his paper he looked over it with a skeptical eye.

"Very good Mr. Malfoy… Very good. I'm glad you remembered that lesson. It was short but I warned you… Yes…" And Snape walked off in the other direction looking very pleased indeed.

"If only he knew the trouble I went through to learn that potions book from front to back…" He sighed and lay his head down. One more test and then NEWT's would be over and they could all relax…

Draco's eyes wandered across the great hall and settled on whom he would bet was doing the best of the three Gryffindor greats. Hermione was nervous, he could tell by the was she was using her left foot to slip of her right shoe then push it back on. By the way she was biting her lip and squinting her eyes as if the answers were inscribed on the paper and all she needed to do was look hard enough…

Draco smiled… he wondered what nervous habits he had. Many people had told him he picked at lint or bit on the end of his quill but he never realized he was doing it and so he never caught himself in the act. Suddenly he was struck by quite the odd question. Had Hermione noticed any of these things? If she had, she had never mentioned it… except for once.

Forcing his eyes away (for fear of burning a hole in the back of her head) Draco refocused his eyes upon the staff table though he admitted the people at that table were far less easy on the eyes than Hermione. He followed the table all the way to the end where he saw Daniel sitting. He was still reading that same magazine and when Draco had brought it up to him he had replied, "I am learning more English from this than any other thing in this school can teach me so let me be!" And he'd throw something, hitting Draco one out of four times usually.

An hour later, the last test was collected and they were set free for the rest of the afternoon.

"Hey Hermione." He said, catching up to her as a quick pace and Hermione turned, waving to Daniel over his shoulder. "Are we ready?" He asked.

"Are we?" Draco nodded. "Hey Daniel, want to see something magnificent before you go back to your India?" Hermione asked, a fond smile on her face. Daniel nodded and saw the look of adoration in the young Indian's eyes. "Follow us to the forbidden forest-"

"Hermione! He can't come!" Draco exclaimed.

"Oh Draco! Why not?" Hermione asked and Daniel seemed genuinely intrigued.

"Hey co-pilot! Over there so we may convene privately." Draco spat and Hermione nodded, crossed her arms over her chest, and followed.

"First of all I don't think you understand the seriousness of this thing we've done. We could not only be expelled for this but… WE COULD DIE! WE COULD GET ARRESTED!" Draco paused, calming down at seeing the look of fear and anger on Hermione's face. "And besides that, he's from a different time… what if he took the spell back to then and set a whole domino effect in motion?"

"Maybe Voldemort wouldn't have risen to power, Harry and Neville would have their parents, and you wouldn't be so damn miserable." Hermione replied.

"So you _have_ put thought into this… How do I explain this?" He asked his voice trailing off. "You can't just change what you want to change. Hell, maybe Harry's mother would have married someone else and Harry wouldn't exist. Maybe the Weasley's wouldn't have had a cause to fight for and so they stayed the raw Hufflepuffs I've seen them as and… Maybe you wouldn't have had a reason to talk to me at all. You see? Is it worth it to lose all this that we have? I mean… it's not grand but… it's all we have. This is life."

"That curse is the worst thing to happen to wizarding kind and you're arguing with me about ending the torture and death two centuries early?" Hermione asked.

"Yes… Because you don't know what will happen and for all we know, someone will find a more horrific spell to use in place of it." Hermione nodded, accepting defeat. "Now are you ready or do you want to wait?"

"What good will it do to wait?" Hermione looked over to Daniel and Draco practically read her mind.

"We don't want to be followed. "She nodded. "I know a spell." Hermione nodded again and five minutes later, they were on the edge of the forbidden forest and positive Daniel had no way of finding them.

"All right… Now I'm going to coax you to make you angry and hateful towards me." He paused. "If this goes badly I want you to do and say whatever you can to get out of trouble all right? Say it was self-defense, I was attacking you…" He asked and she nodded, tears filling her eyes. "Don't cry! Don't be weak. Maybe it's the mudblood in you or maybe it's that Harry Potter was in you, the little coward. You know what? Screw this whole lying thing… Let's take it to the next step… make it real." Draco said and Hermione pulled her wand from her pocket.

"Come on baby, come and get it. All right… I'll come to you." Draco's face took on an odd expression and Hermione was shocked, this seemed so real. He looked ready to devour her… "I saw you in that skirt the other day and I think you're so fuckable that I could fuck you now and no one could hear you scream. And we're alone and everything. You would say I did it _to_ you and I would say we did it _together_ and considering that everyone thinks you're a slut… who will they believe?"

Hermione began too tremble… this was too real, brought back too many memories. It was utterly terrifying to see that feral, hungry, animal like look in his eyes and Hermione found herself growing hot. She felt her pulse pumping through her veins. _Who was he to speak to her like this? Who did he think he was?_

"Hermione, you might as well just lay down and open your legs… it's going to happen sooner or later, with your consent or without it." Draco gave a small laugh that sent chills up her spine. "Or maybe you need Harry… or Ron here to get you in the mood. I saw your picture once in one of those tabloid magazines. Pictures of you with Ron… _and_ Harry." Draco said. "My father was disgusted, so was my mother but I… Let's just say I grew a bit more fond of you in your little skirt and knickers." He smiled evilly. "I thought of sending a couple copies to your family… in fact… I still have them, I wonder what dear old grandmother would say.

"Stop it Draco!" Hermione shouted.

"_Stop it Draco!_" He mocked and Hermione began to scream like she had never screamed before. But Draco kept going.

"Shut up! Shut up! I don't want to hear anymore." She yelled.

"Then shut me up, Hermione. Shut me up and shut me down before I get to you because once I do… I _wont _stop. I'll do things to you that you'll never forget. What I'll do first is-"

"I swear to god Draco," She began. "If you utter one more word, I will have you laying at my feet." She finished, pointing her wand straight at his heart.

"Do it Hermione. Once I get to you I won't stop… I won't stop and you'll never forget that all of it happened because you were a filthy little mudblood coward. Now stop me…" Hermione held her wand steady and felt the words forming. "I see you want it… Okay… I'm going to fuck you into oblivion-"

"_Avada Kadavra!_" The words roared off her tongue and the clearing echoed in reverberation. She heard Draco shout something in response but the clearing was filled with such a great, bright, green light that she couldn't see. And once it was gone, she fell to her knees. Draco was on the ground sprawled face-first not breathing. "Oh my god!" She yelled, crawling over to him. "I didn't mean it… Oh my god Draco! I swear I didn't mean it."

She sat back on her butt and pulled Draco's dead, lifeless body into her arms and cradled his motionless head. Sobbing so hard that her rib cage ached and threatened to explode, Hermione did not see his eye lids flutter nor see his mouth move.

"Did it work?" He asked and Hermione stopped sobbing, looked at him, looked through him, then began sobbing all over again.

Once she was settled, Draco tried to comfort her. "You! I though I had killed you!" She shouted. "Why didn't you give me some kind of sign?"

"I didn't know what was happening… I wasn't even breathing as far as either of us knew but now…" His voice faded off and Hermione's face broke into a smile.

"We did it!" They shouted and Hermione lunged at him, knocking him backwards while kissing his forehead, eyes, nose and mouth all at once, so glad that he was alive, that he was still breathing, that he was still here to kiss her back. "We did it!" And thus ended one of the worst, yet best days of both of their lives…

(A/N:If it was hard for you to read... imagine how hard it was for me to write. I should let you know (if you haven't caught on) that Draco had to make her really hate him because otherwise, the spell wouldn't have worked. He said all of that to make her hate him and what better way to make granger hate you than attacking her innocence, the thing she prides herself on the most... I hope you like it even if it is a bit vulagr and please dont report me for abuse... this is completely symbolic, the language used was for effect and I apologize if you were offended... Understand that it is very important to the chapter and I don't want my story to be R rated because it's not and everyone always assumes that R rated fics are... well, quite frankly smut... but its not... thank you all sooooooo much... I should sign off before I get carpal tunnel!)


	37. Mr Right

Welcome to Drama land…

Chapter 37: Mr. Right

Draco sat down to breakfast and looked down at his plate in disgust. _What was he going to do?_ Earlier in the evening the night before he had received a letter from his mother stating that now that testing was through, he was to come home for a week. That a friend of the family wished to see him…

_So… Voldemort has finally reached my mother…_ He thought dejectedly as he had sat in his room, waiting for Daniel to return from Hermione and his study session.

As he sat there listening to the silence around him he felt like screaming, but not a word, not a sound escaped his dry lips. He really couldn't believe that his mother had fallen to _him_. Voldemort was strong, but Narcissa was stronger. But maybe that was it… All his life he had believed that his mother was greater than god himself could be but now… now came the painful realization that his mother was not just human, but she was weak. His father had been weak too, not that he was saying the two of them were at all similar. His mother had had a good heart that his father had morphed and twisted into the shadow of one whereas his father had never quite had the capacity to be human. He was first and foremost a tool of whoever he thought could give him what he thought he was entitled to, what he thought he needed.

And that was why Narcissa was alive and Lucius dead. Lucius was lucky because he knew the right people but Narcissa… Narcissa was cursed for knowing them and denying their ways.

Later, while he tried to sleep over Daniel's snores he decided that he couldn't tell Hermione despite the fact that he longed to confide in her his worst fears but he was afraid they were too great for even Hermione to handle. He was still reeling from the realization and he had grown up around this sort of conflict… It was never _him_ though. It was never _his_ family, it was never _his_ friends. Not until he had made the conscious decision to defy the codes of the Death Eaters and befriend a mudblood… but he supposed his worst offense was loving one…

Draco tried to deny to himself that he loved her but the fact remained. What else could it be called when one could stare at someone's face for hours and never grow tired of one crease, one expression, or one flaw? What could it be called when he could watch her yell until she was red in the face and he lose no respect for her? What else could make him, Draco fricken Malfoy, weak in the knees to the point where he truly believed he could fall into her brown eyes? And what else could he call this fear for her in the pit of his stomach, A fear that remained with him all the time. It wasn't just for her life but for her sanity, for her heart, and for her loves.

Draco contemplated a great many things when thinking about this and came to a disturbing conclusion. He would jump in front of a bus to save Harry Potter just so he didn't have to see her cry one tear or hurt the way that he hurt when he thought about losing his mother. He would sacrifice himself and everything that he had just to see her smile. He would give to her every last shred of his humanity for just one secret that she held close to her. It was pathetic but… it was all true.

The question was; would he tell her this? Not a chance in the world. He enjoyed the carefree demeanor they held now too much. They were still young and she was still searching. He could tell she wasn't ready to commit. There was so much experience that she had to gain and though it bothered him to a point where it burned through him like fire, he knew and had accepted that he would not be the one to share all of these experiences with her. If he had believed that that was the case he would have slapped a sticker on his face that said, naïve or stupid.

Looking across the great hall he watched as Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Daniel Wright conversed with all the other Gryffindors and amongst themselves. It made him, for once in his life, long to wear the red and gold…

"I like them…" Daniel told Hermione as she led him to her next class.

"It seems they've taken a liking to you as well, Daniel." Hermione replied. "It seems as though you've got quite the social talent. Padma was practically melting into your lap."

"Padma? Was she the small one? With the black hair?" He asked and Hermione nodded.

"She seems a bit shrewd." Daniel replied. "And I think she likes to talk… a lot."

"That she does." Hermione looked perplexed for a moment and paused. "Is it just me or is your accent fading?" She asked.

"This always happens… Whenever I am away from my native home and family for too long I start to adapt to the languages and it has been proven that when in a particular environment people change." Daniel replied and Hermione nodded.

"That's very interesting to discover. So… If I went to America for a year I would develop an American accent?" She asked and Daniel nodded. "And when I came home I would go back to the way I normally speak?" Once again Daniel nodded. "Do you even notice the change?"

"No… but others do." He said with a smile. "So… Your friend Harry. He is an orphan… How did he lose both of his parents?" Daniel asked and Hermione paused, thinking of how to reply.

"I don't know the whole detailed story but what I have heard from Harry and other sources is that Lily and James, Harry's parents, were asked by lord Voldemort, an insane man who practically crowned himself god, to join him and they refused. Thus they became the hunted, the enemy." Hermione waited for an indication from Daniel and when he motioned for her to continue she nodded. They were now outside of her classroom but she didn't touch the handle. She wanted to finish telling Daniel the story before they met up with Harry and Ron. "Well, one night, while Lily and James were in hiding, one of Voldemort's servants, their secret keeper, told him the way to get to their home and first he killed James who tried to defend Lily and Harry-"

"Harry was there when they were killed?" Daniel asked.

"Yes… He was only an infant though, probably not older than one." She waited for any more questions but it became obvious that he had none. "Well, he killed James and Lily and then he tried to kill Harry but… something strange happened. He said the two most horrible words you can say in the wizarding world but nothing at all happened to Harry… Instead, Voldemort had broken his own power and no one knows why…"

"So… is Voldemort still around?" Daniel asked and Hermione nodded. "In prison right?" Hermione shook her head sadly.

"Everyone thought he was dead but two years ago when Harry was competing in the Triwizard tournament the trophy was turned into a portkey that sent the winner, supposed to be Harry, to a place where Voldemort returned to his body…" Hermione felt tears come to her eyes and something was blocking her throat.

"You said it was supposed to be Harry… Was it?" Daniel asked.

"It was Harry but… Harry, who had tried to be honorable, decided that he and another boy, a Hufflepuff, would share the winnings but Cedric was killed... right in front of his eyes." Hermione stuttered.

"That's terrible… and no one's found him yet?" He asked and Hermione shook her head, opening the door. "Harry seems okay for someone whose had such a bad life."

"Not bad… just full of loss. In fact, just last year he lost the only person who he could ever really call family to the very man who made an orphan of him." Hermione said and suddenly all the feelings she had put aside came back in torrents.

"It makes you sad, to see him in pain." Daniel stated and Hermione smiled while nodding.

"I'm so lucky…" Hermione began. "And it sucks to be that lucky. Lucky enough to have a mother and father to go home to when someone else who is so much more deserving than you in so many ways goes home to an aunt and uncle who can't stand him and a cousin who beats the shit out of him… and all the memories… I truly can't imagine what it must be like to be in Harry's mind." Hermione said. "He probably relives every moment of those things while he sleeps…"

"How could he not?" And Hermione shrugged.

"There Harry is… We should stop this conversation." Hermione suggested, turning a bit red and Daniel nodded.

"I don't think that I have ever admired someone as much as I admire him…" And that was the last comment Daniel made on the subject.

"So are you and Daniel dating or are you and Draco still barking up each other's trees?" Ginny asked at lunch and Hermione laughed.

"Daniel and I are just friends and Draco and I… well, I don't know exactly where we're at. We haven't really talked about anything and Draco doesn't seem to mind… What does that mean?" Hermione asked.

"That he's lost interest and is already looking elsewhere." Ginny replied immediately. But it wasn't because she didn't like Draco, it's what she truly believed of him.

Hermione cringed. It took a moment for her to recover from Ginny's stinging comment but she did make an effort at a comeback.

"That's rude to say…" _Failure…_

"It's true… Him and Heather seem to be getting awfully close." Ginny said. "That is what we normal people call drifting."

"Him and Heather are just friends and Daniel… Daniel just isn't my type…" Hermione said, looking across the great hall towards the Slytherin table.

"What, he cares? He's nice to you? He worships the ground you walk on? That's every girl's type. Draco on the other hand," She began. "Is rude, careless, plots the torture of innocent people for entertainment purposes, and is damaged. He's the type of boy most girls try to shy away from…" Ginny said. "Not to mention the fact that Draco is practically any dark lord's dream servant… If you can't see death trap written all over _that_ than wow! You must have it bad."

"I shouldn't have asked you." Hermione said, gathering up her things. "I should have known you'd be the closed-minded, judgmental Ginny." Hermione paused before she stood. "Maybe I should have told you it was Ron I was talking about. I bet then you'd be all over trying to patch things up and figure out what is wrong and I think that sucks." Hermione said turning. "If you ever even thought about giving Draco a chance you'd be a better person for it." And she turned, leaving.

Draco saw Hermione flee the red-headed guinea pig and stood to follow her. He figured they should speak now and find out where they are before he left to seal his fate. Maybe what they said would change his mind.

But as he walked into the library he saw her face light up as she saw Daniel sitting in the back.

"Hermione." He called and she turned. Upon seeing him, her smile twitched before widening. "I have to talk to you about something.

Hermione's heartbeat increased. From the look on his face she knew she didn't want to hear it. "Can it wait?" _Don't break my heart in my territory…_ "I have some studying I have to do." _I really don't want to hear your excuses…_

"…Erm… Yeah… Of course. I'll talk to you later…" And Draco turned around, feeling as though he was walking the walk of shame and rejection.

"Why so down Draco?" Asked a bright voice behind him and Draco turned to face Heather, dressed as usual in her revealing gothic clothes.

Hermione saw through the window as Draco looked down at his shoes, too shy to be in the presence of Heather, who was so obviously flaunting her beauty, and look her in the eyes. Hermione looked away…

"I think something's wrong." He said and Heather looked about to laugh.

"Wrong with you? Wrong with the world? Wrong with what?" She asked, motioning for him to walk beside her as she went somewhere else, somewhere Hermione wasn't.

"Wrong with Hermione… or Hermione and I." Draco replied, feeling stupid and shy but most of all embarrassed, all very new things for Draco to feel. But they were potent enough for him to decide he didn't like it, he didn't like any of it one bit.

"How do you mean?"

"She seems so… distant." Draco said and Heather nodded, letting out a sigh. "What?"

"I think it may be over for you two, pal." Heather replied and Draco's heart skipped a bit. Over? They hadn't even really begun and all of his emotions and all of his logic felt far from being over… The chemistry was still there… wasn't it?

"What?" Draco asked and Heather frowned, pulling his aside.

"look… you got messed with, pushed around by a snotty Gryffindor. It's time to let go." _Let go? _Draco wasn't ready to let go, not by a long shot.

"Why?" Draco asked, truly perplexed.

"It's obvious she isn't interested anymore. It's obvious that she wants that little Gryffindor wannabe from the past…" Heather said then after looking at the crushed expression on Draco's face (despite the fact he was trying to hide it) she added, "There are some things Gryffindors don't do and I can tell you right now that marrying a Slytherin is one of them."

"Why wouldn't she talk to me about it though… She's always been the talking type." Draco said.

"Have you two recently had a fight?" Heather asked and Draco nodded. "With some girls they consider the end of a fight to be the end of the relationship whether the guy knows it or not… That's what some girls think. Once the fights over, you're just friends…"

_There's no way any of this is true… It's too… logical. Too… easy… Too quick…_ "So it's just… over?" Draco asked and Heather nodded.

"You can wait around forever for her to talk it over but… you're the one whose being hurt by this… she's already got another boy…" And it was then that Draco made the smartest stupidest decision he had ever made. Heather leaned forward and kissed him. "How was that?" She asked. "Did you feel anything?"

Draco leaned against the wall, flushed, as though everything already made sense to him…

Hermione left the library a minute after Draco did and followed close behind. She could tell Draco was talking to Heather about something serious but she wasn't desperate enough to eavesdrop. She just wanted to talk to Draco. She was worried about him… about them.

After walking for a few steps, Draco and Heather stopped and Heather pulled Draco into a darkened corridor. _Odd that just friends would act this way…_ Said part of her mind but Hermione crushed the suspicion. That was until she saw Heather pull Draco into a kiss and Draco didn't exactly struggle…

_I can't even believe what I just saw…_ Before Hermione could move she felt the tears come then overwhelm her. Her heart, it felt, stopped beating, and she felt her face flush in embarrassment and utter humiliation… _what was she going to do?_ If Draco tried to talk to her like this didn't happen… if she… no…

"No… I didn't feel anything at all." Draco said, pushing her away. "What the hell are you thinking?" Draco asked. "What the fuck is the matter with you?"

"I had to know if you felt as strongly about Hermione as you keep acting like you do. I have to know if you seriously need my help to keep you two together or if you were just in it for a good snog, maybe even a shag."

"So you kiss me, taking the risk of ruining everything Hermione and I have built on the basis of trust?" Draco asked. 'You must be fucking crazy!"

"Use your common sense Draco…" Heather said.

"I have to find Hermione. We need to talk…"

"and that is why-"

"I'm done listening to a Slytherin's advice. I'm not just thinking about me here and that's all we're good at doing… thinking about ourselves." Draco spat.

But he was unable to find Hermione…

Hermione saw Draco leave that Saturday to spend a week with his mother… Sure, she was scared to let him go without saying goodbye but… she was also very wounded and very angry.

"Maybe Daniel is my type." Hermione thought aloud as she studied. "Maybe Daniel Wright is Mr. Right after all. He _is_ nice and I am sure he would never hurt me like Draco did…" _But maybe safe isn't what you need…_ "Bugger off… It's not you he dumped…" Hermione slouched down in her chair in front of the fire and began to cry. They should have spoken. Who knew when she would see him again. The last time a Malfoy left to go on a journey, he never returned…

_You had to go off and love him…_ "I don't love him… Come here Auru." Hermione said and the small Kelltor jumped into her lap. "You would never kiss Heather while your intentions towards me were unclear would you?" Auru barked loudly and looked at her in confusion. "See… you don't know how to be mean…" And thus she spent her Saturday, crying and crying until not one more tear could be driven from her tired ducts.

A/N: Someone suggested a bit more angst and here it is… I usually try to stray away from drama but I think this turned out surprisingly well. I hope you like it and if you didn't catch it what's going on is that they're both so caught up in their own feelings that they're totally reading each other wrong. I tried to convey the message that talking does solve a lot of issues that could be avoided… hope you liked and if not… I don't want to hear it… J/K I also added a bit of Harry's history in there and now Harry has one more Harry fan in his Harry Potter fanclub… hehe


	38. Snape Finds Out

Chapter 38: Snape Finds Out

Snape woke in the dead of night. He had been there again, watching, waiting, lurking. He tried to shake the images from his mind but this was his curse. To remember… to relive every single second of that night. The night that had changed his mind about being a death eater, the night he had made his first kill…

The shadows were dark, it was a new moon. They had gone to the house at just a little past seven but now it was eleven and they were all growing restless. He looked to his right, Julian Persad's eyes met Snape's and he smiled, his cold darkened eyes glistening with malice.

"You ready for this one Severus?" The Persad asked. The boy was three years younger than Snape yet had enough bloodlust for both of them and more. Snape could see the eagerness and felt a pang of doubt when his reaction was not the same… He wasn't excited, just apprehensive.

After all, they weren't attacking just anyone… This was a very important muggle family.

"What's taking so long?" Snape asked and Persad shrugged. He didn't mind waiting.

"Waiting's the best part old man." He hissed, the words slithering over his tongue like saliva.

"There's a difference between waiting and being set up. I think your source was unreliable." Severus snapped, his voice filling with the familiar air of authority and superiority. He did hold a higher rank than Persad could ever hope to obtain at his age but Persad missed that. "It's obvious they aren't going to-"

"Shh… Here they come." Persad interrupted and Snape felt a pang of fear. "You ready boys?" Persad asked and the three other death eaters there gave small woofs and howls all down the line until it reached Severus who was breathing heavily. He had heard the plans… they were to go in once everyone had gone to bed and lights were out… Then they were to kill them… kill them all and leave the dark mark high above their roofs for people to stare at in fear and wonder…

"Word is you don't like the killing so… That leaves you the third room on the right on the second floor. It should be a storage room… If anyone's in it though, you know what to do." Persad said and it was slightly frightening to Severus that Persad, at only sixteen was so good that this, knew so much… What were they doing?

"Lights out in twenty minutes." Persad estimated and someone challenged it. Soon there was a full-scale bet going and to no one's real surprise, twenty minutes later, all the lights in the house were out and everything was ready to go. "Lenin, you owe me thirty galleons, Paris, twelve, and Severus… good old Severus, you didn't bet a knut did you? Have you always had such a tight hold on your purse?" Persad asked and Severus glared, his lip curling.

"Let's just get moving, I want to be home in bed by one. My wife's going to wonder…" Said someone to his far left and Severus actually allowed himself a brief moment of shock. That's right… some of these men had wives, families, feelings.

_How can you even look your wife and children in the eyes after doing- no not doing, enjoying- something like this?_ Severus wanted to ask, but, as always, he kept his mouth shut. All these men were killers. But Severus wasn't in it for the killing. He was in it for justice and the power to administer it. If his father had been any model of a male muggle then Severus figured they all deserved to die…

"All right. Let's move in. Be real quiet. Nobody wants a live wild muggle to deal with here, especially one with a classic gun collection bigger than my house." Persad said and there were scattered chuckles.

Severus followed the others closely and once they were all inside the house everyone tiptoed to their positions and a second later, the chaos began.

As always, Severus hurried to his place and slammed the door. He didn't want to hear the woman scream as he knew she would and sure enough, a second later a woman's shriek filled the house but was cut off very suddenly. Then Severus heard the loud shouting of a male then muffled cries as Severus' comrades committed the worst crime a wizard could. He listened to them torture that man and he leaned his forehead against the door, trying to be elsewhere but the fact was, there was no escape from the horrible truth of where he was and what he was doing.

Turning slowly a sight that filled him with horror came to view. In the darkness he could make out two small beds and from the starlight shining in through the undraped window he could see small toys scattered across the floor and saw to his utter horror that the walls were a pastel pink. This wasn't a storage closet… it was a child's room…

Severus paused, unable to handle the thought of what he had been told to do. He had figured that when the time came he would be able to d it but looking upon the small sleeping forms of the two children, he forgot to breathe. Then he realized that the screaming had stopped. The woman and man were dead now, together in a heaven Severus no longer believed in… These children were orphans… they were better off dead…

Stepping forward, Severus pulled his wand from the innards of his robes and shakily held it up. He would kill the girl first he decided. That way, if the boy were to awaken, the girl would not have to see her brother die.

But as Severus opened his mouth to say those two words he froze. The little girl rolled over, groaning a bit as she smashed her small, beautiful and fair face into a satin pillow, clicking her tongue in sleep. She looked like his niece… His little niece who lived far away now. Just like her in fact…

The door opened, squeaking loudly and Severus turned to face Persad. "What the hell are you doing, Severus? It's time to go!" Persad snapped looking at Severus' shaking hand.

"You fucking prick…" Severus began quietly. "You knew didn't you? You had to. You scouted out this house a week before we came…" Severus said.

"You can't be a death eater if you don't have blood on your hands old Sev." Persad snarled.

"I haven't killed a man and you expect me to kill two sleeping children? I will not give you the satisfaction. You can condemn yourself." Severus stated, dropping his arm resolutely to his side.

"All right then… It's no longer your choice." Persad stated. "You do it or you die." Persad raised his wand, pointing it right at Severus' heart and he took in a deep breath. "Now do it. Do it while they're sleeping." Persad urged, stepping forward, deeper into the room, his eyes glistening. "Believe me Severus… you don't want to see their faces, you'll never forget." Persad said, a haunting quality in his voice that Severus had never heard before. It could have been an echo of humanity…

"I won't." Severus said and Persad laughed.

"You will." He said flatly, moving closer. "You will or I will." He threatened and Severus smirked. It was an idle threat that Severus had already offered. "But I'll do it slowly and make you watch. You are these kids' only hope for a quick painless death. I like the screaming too much to end it with two simple words and you know it. Do it now Severus, while they're sleeping."

Severus lifted his wand, paused, let it fall again, then lifted it once more. "Do it or you're all going to die right here in this room. Voldemort doesn't like cowards Severus and you know it. He'll find out about this and kill you anyway. I'd be doing you a favor. Just do it and it'll be over… You'll never have to kill again…"

Severus walked out into the sunlight in shock. Suddenly being a death eater was wrong. So wrong that he wanted to take a gun and put a bullet right through his own skull. But not before he put one through Voldemort's… How does one twist the mind of someone so young as Persad into something so unlike a human brain that the boy didn't even recognize divine innocence, the kind you can never be forgiven…They had spilled the kind of blood that clings to your hands until your last dying breath, you may never be cleansed of it…

It was then he came to the conclusion that being a death eater wasn't at all about what he had joined it for. There were no friends now that Voldemort had come to complete power only competitors, there was no fun, only murder and corruption, but most of all there was no happiness, it held no joy. They were like empty robots, shells… tools…

As he entered his small home he walked into the bathroom and opened his medicine cabinet. They had taken his razor again. Damn them! Damn them all for denying him the little control he had!

Looking into the mirror Severus didn't even recognize himself. His pale grotesque skin clung to his face not in youth but in lean animosity. His eyes were sunken in, almost yellow. His hair was greasy and lifeless. What have they done to me? _What have you done to yourself?_

"Kill me…" He whispered to his reflection. "Kill me! Kill me! Kill me!" He shouted over and over again until he reached the breaking point and threw his fist into the glass mirror punch after punch until blood was leaking from his hand and arm like a dripping faucet.

"I don't want to be a death eater anymore…" He sobbed, sinking to his knees. "I don't want to be a death eater…" And that was when Severus decided instead of killing Voldemort he would destroy him and later that day, with bandages tightly wrapped up and down his arms, he found the man he once called headmaster…

Severus rolled over at dawn, shoving his face into his pillow letting out an agonized groan just as he had done every day since he had committed that unforgivable crime. "I'm sorry, Jennifer. I'm so sorry Collin." He whispered. The day after he had done it, he had looked up their names and ages. Jennifer had been eleven going on twelve and Collin had just turned fourteen the day before.

A half an hour later, Severus rose. Maybe this was why he had never married. Maybe he felt as though a wife may intrude upon his little ceremony, weaken it or destroy it. He knew he would never have kids… Not after… not after that… He wouldn't be able to look at them, let alone allow himself the gift of loving them. He didn't deserve it.

Stretching, he thought about the day ahead. He then showered and readied himself for a day of lesson planning. "Shit!" He exclaimed as he remembered Dumbledore's little surprise meeting. There would be no lesson planning today. All of the staff (the member's of the OoTP specifically) had matters to discuss one of which was Draco Malfoy.

Dressing himself rather hastily, Severus fled through the halls like a shadow being chased through hell.

Once he reached the meeting room he took a moment to compose himself then turned the handle and allowed himself entry into the small staff room.

"You're a few minutes late Severus." Dumbledore said, unsurprised.

"Yes… there were things that needed to be taken care of before I could grant myself leave of my chambers." Severus replied and Dumbledore nodded in understanding. Dumbledore was the only other person on earth and hell who knew what Severus did every morning. In fact, it was Dumbledore whom had suggested it to a disturbed, twenty-year old who was depressed and contemplating suicide.

"Well?" Dumbledore asked. "Come in." Severus stepped into the room and took his seat at the end of he staff table. Looking around he saw every face he was used to seeing except one who was missing but who was replaced with someone whom was not welcome…_ Remus J. Lupin…_

"As I was just saying, I am a bit worried for Mr. Malfoy who recently began a leave of absence called for by his mother most suspiciously-"

"Malfoy's gone?" Severus asked dumbly, truly shocked and Dumbledore nodded. "Gone to his mother's home?" Once again Dumbledore nodded. "But Narcissa never calls for the boy… It was always Lucius and even then it was always for… for Voldemort." Severus said and Dumbledore nodded yet again. (A/N: In case you were wondering how Draco knew that Voldemort had reached his mother)

"And he knew it, a wise boy, this Malfoy." Dumbledore said. "Wise beyond his years."

"What are you talking about, wise? He is stupid! He is a stupid boy for leaving when he knew it could be only one person summoning him!" Severus shouted, banging his fist on the table.

"But this time, Malfoy has a plan." Dumbledore said. "The only reason he left was for fear of how Voldemort got to his mother whom long ago was placed under Lucius' protection from the dark lord… As we know, many sacrifices were made to assure both the boy and his mother's safety." There were nods of agreement all down the table but Severus could still not get over the fact that Draco was not in the school.

"You let him go?" He asked.

"I did not have a choice, Severus. Unless I had hard evidence to suggest he was taking part in some illegal, heinous activity, there would be no reason by law that I could detain him here against his will as well as his mother's." Dumbledore replied sadly. "There was nothing I could do Severus… Draco made the decision and he is the only one who could have… He feels as though he needs to save his mother."

"There is no saving that woman." Severus stated.

"Let Draco figure that out on his own." Dumbledore said. "Meanwhile-"

"I'm leaving." Severus stated as he stood. "Find me a suitable substitute. I want my potions class to be up to date when I return." Severus demanded.

"Severus… There is nothing you can do even if you were to leave right this moment. Things need to play out as they were meant to. Malfoy must choose for himself, the best path for him to follow." Dumbledore said quietly. "Now sit down and finish the meeting."

"I cannot sit here and talk about other things while the boy I have tried so hard to fix is being exposed to the very thing he needs the least." Severus snapped. "That boy is unstable… The slightest thing could tip the scales with him. Are you ready to face another Tom Riddle because that is what Draco Malfoy is… He has nothing to lose, which makes him just as Dangerous as Lord Voldemort himself!"

"He has plenty to lose-"

"Not enough! I have to go, Headmaster. Fire me! Do as you will. I _will not lose this boy…_ not to Voldemort. I've given that monster enough." Severus finished and he left.

"And whose idea was it that we not let Snape find out?" Remus asked as he pointed to himself then he crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back.

"That would have done none of us any good, Remus and you know it…" Dumbledore said. "I just hope Severus is in time. I'm too old and too tired to deal with another dark lord. God only knows how much longer this body can hold up… It seems as though the wizarding community is bent on testing me to the very limits of my power…" He paused, sighing. "I'm very tired…" And he was, Remus had never seen him looking so old as he did right then… It was then that every single soul at the table realized that this would kill Dumbledore…

AN: I figured I would agive my opinion on what happened to snape... it makes me sad to think about it this way but... life is sad. I hope you liked it. Things are slowly starting to drift to darkness if you haven't noticed. Hermione has the next chapter all to herself and we wont know what's going on with Draco... hehe... hope you like wondering

P.s... Persad is pronounced Per-sawed. you know like he sawed through the table? The thought of someone pronouncing it wrong was driving me nuts...


	39. Strange Utterings From Afar

Major transition chapter. It is very short and this is not all… I promise.

Chapter 39: Strange Utterings from Afar

Hermione first noticed that Draco had left when she went to potions. Two things were wrong on that very warm and very humid Tuesday. First of all… Snape wasn't there, second, Draco wasn't there either.

"I wonder where Snape is." Hermione wondered aloud, hoping someone would offer their worries about Draco as well but Ron took it as an opportunity to make a very rude, very distasteful comment.

"Snape's gone… Draco's gone… it is a good Tuesday Hermione, let things lie. They're probably both at a death eater meeting, I mean don't you think it sort of odd that they're both not here and they're both very closely related to… well, the death eaters?" Ron asked and Harry nodded.

"I don't think so… Maybe McGonagall will know." Hermione said.

"Yes… McGonagall has all the answers. Why don't we just waltz right up to professor McGonagall and demand to know the location of our least favorite teacher… I say we give the fellow who's keeping them a fucking medal." Ron snapped. "Keeps them out of _our_ hair."

"You're so self-centered Ronald." Hermione said, a glare on her face.

"Oh yeah… I forgot we had a Slytherin lover in our midst…" Ron snarled and Hermione recoiled. "what I meant to say is that Slytherins are the cuddliest things since cobras, eh Harry?"

"I'd say so."

"You guys really have to grow up." Hermione said bitterly as she took down the notes on the board. No doubt professor Snape would want them all on schedule when he returned.

"Why couldn't you go for a more respectable fellow like that Daniel kid who follows you around?" Ron asked and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Besides the fact he's like two centuries older than me?" Hermione asked and Ron nodded. _Because I want butterflies…_ "I dunno… He is pretty nice."

"See… Daniel'd be perfect and he can even read, a plus!" Harry added with a smirk.

"Yes, but he's so… boring. Nothing ever happens _to_ him." She wanted to say but she kept her lips sealed, never uttering the words.

Entering the great hall the trio could automatically see something was off. There were people from Hufflepuff talking with Ravenclaws, Slytherins conversing with Hufflepuffs and the Gryffindors were everywhere, talking to anyone who had ears.

"Seamus, what's going on?" Ron called and the dark-haired Gryffindor frowned, a sad forlorn expression on his face.

"I've heard there's been an attack… Durmstrang and what's left of Beauxbatons might be coming to Hogwarts. Voldemort made an outright attack on Beauxbatons. The school is in ruin. Madame Maxime was killed… along with almost two hundred others as well." Seamus relayed.

"When are they going to be here?" Hermione asked and Seamus shrugged.

"I heard from Professor Flitwick that it wouldn't be any more than a week, the way Dumbledore's reacting to the whole mess." Seamus replied. "Both schools are a mess. The new headmaster of Durmstrang is falling apart, or so I've heard. They've hushed this up well… there's nothing in the daily prophet at all…"

"And they're sure it's Voldemort?" Harry asked and Seamus crossed his arms over his chest.

"Harry! You being who you are…Who else could it be?"

"I told you, Hermione." Ron said solemnly as they took their seats at Gryffindor table.

"You told me what?" Hermione snapped, unable to even look at food. Two hundred killed…

"That Draco and Snape were off doing death eater business." Ron replied shoving a whole piece of toast in his mouth then he took a large swig of pumpkin juice to wash it down.

"Where did you get that load of nonsense?" Hermione asked.

"Let's see. Strike one, they're both gone on the day that a large scale attack on the wizarding community occurs, strike two, Draco is a slimy git, and strike three, Snape's a slimier git." Ron snarled back.

"That's rubbish and you know it, Ron." Hermione sighed. "Snape's on our side and Draco's… Draco's not betraying us any time soon." Hermione said slowly, trying to convince herself that she spoke the truth.

"And it's your stupidity that's going to get us all killed." Ron hissed and Hermione pushed her chair back ready to defend her honor as well as Draco's despite the fact he was a… dishonorable liar, a cheater, and… and a Slytherin.

"You little-" She began but McGonagall decided this would be a fine moment to interrupt.

"All prefects need to report to Dumbledore's office for an emergency meeting… I'm afraid some terrible things have happened." Hermione didn't think she had ever seen McGonagall quite so pale…

"You guys…" Harry urged. "Go on… you have somewhere else to be…"

"You'll be going too Mr. Potter. Pack your things, you won't be returning to classes today. Everyone else… open your books to the next chapter and read… we still have work to get along with…"

Hermione stood slowly and packed her bag. A knot was curling in her stomach and she could see the same was happening with both Ron and Harry. Thoughts were ravaging her brain and consuming all common sense like wildfire… _Was Draco okay? Was Draco hurt? Was he involved?_ And thoughts like this raced through her head as she followed Harry up the spiraling staircase into Dumbledore's office…

A/N: sorry sorry sorry so short but… well… It's necessary. This chapter and the two after are going to be short and intense. We're nearing the end guys and this is where everything gets tied together and in some cases… tied up.


	40. The Secret Sister

Chapter 40: The Secret Sister

Draco entered the manor at a little past ten in the morning. Taking a deep breath, Draco tried to calm his nerves but there was no being calm. He was about to face any wizard's worst nightmare. The terrifying thing was that he knew he would survive it…

"Mother…" Draco called out and the large entry hall echoed with his voice. He moved deeper into the manor, taking off his coat and hanging it on the rack next to the door. _Bad sign… Dingy wasn't there…_ Dingy the house elf always greeted her masters at the door… _Unless mum got rid of her…_ "Don't be stupid." He said to himself. "Face the fact that your mother is dead. You came here to see Voldemort-"

"Draco!" Draco's eyes snapped to the corridor on his right and he felt relief flood through him as the form of his mother came gracefully gliding down the hallway towards him.

"Mother…" Draco uttered and Narcissa could sense the disappointment in his voice.

"I had no choice…" She said, trying to give an answer that could justify what she had done. "We've already given up so much for you, Draco… This is the only way to insure-"

"Insure what mother? Insure that I end up just like my father?" Draco snapped, the anger and frustration seeping into his voice. "I have no plans of being in debt to Voldemort and I… I know…" He said, his voice fading.

"Know what?" Narcissa asked, stepping forward and reaching out her hand to swipe a streak of silver hair from Draco's face.

"I know about Diana!" He said, pushing her hand away and steeping backwards as if she were diseased. "How you sacrificed her to Voldemort like some cult spilling an innocent lamb's blood to satiate a god… It makes me sick to think… to think about any of this!"

"Draco… that's not-"

"Draconis Malfoy… It _has_ been a very long time hasn't it?" Came a deep, drawling voice from the corridor ahead and Draco allowed his eyes to wander past his mother to the cloaked shape of Voldemort.

"Not long enough." Draco said before he could control his response.

"I see you're angry… good. Anger is just the thing you need and you have plenty of it." Voldemort hissed and Draco watched in disbelief as a snake emerged from the inside of Voldemort's robes.

"Nagina…" Draco whispered. He remembered this snake from his nightmares…

"You two _have _met, haven't you? Nagina seems to be fond of your dreamland, young Malfoy. She likes nightmares." Voldemort said. Pausing, Voldemort took in a deep breath and let out a sigh. "You and I have some talking to do, Draconis. I have an offer for you…" Draco's eyes passed over Voldemort and met his mother's.

"I can do nothing." Narcissa said stepping back.

"I won't be making any deal with the devil today." Draco said and Voldemort laughed.

"Maybe not today, but you will make a deal whether it is with me or the grim reaper is your choice." Voldemort said. "Persad!" Voldemort shouted.

"Yes milord?" The cloaked stranger asked.

"Show our young friend to his quarters, make sure he is _comfortable_." Voldemort replied and Persad nodded, bowing.

"Get over here you bastard." Persad snarled and when Draco didn't move Persad pulled his wand without any hesitation and said, "_Avada Kadavra!"_

Draco barely dodged the spell and when he looked up, Persad was smiling. "That should get you to move."

"That is very foolish Persad… You just risked your life." Voldemort said calmly and Persad smiled a smile that made Draco sick to his stomach.

"What else is worth bargaining with, if you have no soul and money doesn't mean a thing?" Persad asked and Voldemort laughed. "Now get." Persad snapped to Draco who hesitantly walked down the corridor, Persad's wand pointed to his back.

"This ought to be a trip home to remember…" Persad said with a laugh and Draco felt a sense of foreboding unfurl somewhere between his lungs and his stomach. _This is going to be bad…_

Draco lay on the cold stone floor panting. He began choking and with a loud cough Draco spat on the floor, staring in fascination at his own blood. Every piece of his body was aching, burning, or numb. It had been… he didn't even know how long he had been home but… _Why me?_ He sobbed dryly as she tried to move his arms. _Oh God…_ He heard footsteps in the corridor outside of his 'cell' and cringed.

"Kill me this time, will you?" Draco begged as the door creaked open and there was no hint of sarcasm in his voice at all. When he heard the words come out of his mouth he shook his head, not willing to believe that it was he who had said them.

"I'm not going to touch you Draco… I never laid a hand on you." Came the soft voice of his mother and Draco groaned.

"Leave me alone… go bow before Voldemort and kiss his feet or whatever you modern death eaters do to gain favor nowadays." Draco snarled, his lips curling in disgust.

"I have food for you-"

"I don't want it!" He yelled and she cringed but still stepped forward. Opening his eyes, Draco could see her slender silhouette against the candlelight from the corridor behind her. Draco could tell by the painting beyond the door that they were near his library… He would never be able to come here again after this…

"Draco… you need to eat." Narcissa whispered, he voice choking on the words.

"Since when have you cared? I mean really cared?" Draco asked bitterly. "You're not even supposed to be in here!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.

"I may not be able to save you from Voldemort but you're making it a hell of a job to save you from yourself." Narcissa said, giving Draco a sharp slap across his face. "Now you need to grow up and be a man."

"What is a man, mother?" Draco asked. "What is a man if I am not one?" Narcissa stood, leaving the small tray of food on the floor in front of him. She began to walk away from him but he reached out and grabbed her ankle.

"Save me…" He whispered, but Narcissa's expression stayed steely. "Save me instead of using me!" Draco shouted.

"You want to know what a man is, Draco? A man is a boy who takes the things that are thrown at him, survives, and uses his brain to use his experience as an advantage." Narcissa said. "Your father was a man."

"No, mother. My father was a liar and a simpering fool who worshipped the ground another man walked on." Draco hissed. "He was a weak, demented, twisted shell of a man ruled by his desires and ambition. At least he had ambition though… you're just weak."

"I know about that mudblood, I've seen you two… Voldemort showed me. You deserve whatever you get." Narcissa said. _This wasn't his mother…_

"Bye mother. I hope you're enjoying the show because I'm not going to give in…" Draco said. "I'll die before I end up like Lucius Malfoy."

"Draco, Draco, Draco… They've already killed you. As far as the 'good' wizarding community is concerned, you _are_ dead to them." Narcissa said and Draco was taken aback.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Draco asked.

"Draco Malfoy helped plan and execute the attack on the Beauxbatons academy of witchcraft this evening." Narcissa said and she left the room, slamming the door behind her as if she was a child who didn't get her way.

"I want to talk to Voldemort!" Draco yelled and Persad entered the room like a snake. _So he had been waiting outside the whole time? That conversation with him mother had been planned… if that was really even his mother._

"So… you've had a change of tune?" Voldemort asked and Draco shook his head. "No? Then what is it you need?"

"I want to know everything…" And so Draco was informed of what Voldemort had done. He had led a full out attack on Beauxbatons, killing the headmistress and two hundred students but that came as no surprise to Draco. What came next was the shocker… the thing that left Draco speechless.

"I received an article late this evening that points not to me… but to you." Voldemort said. "An exact quote is 'the son of Lucius Malfoy, an ambitious and conniving Slytherin, led a troop of fellow death eaters into the school where they were welcomed with open arms then blew half of the school away. At this point, the boy's body has not been discovered we are led to hope expired along with the two hundred innocent children he ruthlessly aided in murdering…' and on and on."

"Me? But I was here…" Draco said. "I've been here…" He sputtered in disbelief. "How can… I was…"

"Yes… rather disappointing, not even getting credit for one of my more original ideas…" Voldemort said with a sigh. "But I see it as a worthy investment. You already have quite the reputation young Malfoy. It would be easy for you to work your way up to me rather quickly."

Voldemort waited for the full weight to take affect before beginning his new topic. "There is something else." He said and Draco looked up at him, a look of utter hatred in every line on his face. "About your sister."

"She's dead… I already know." Draco said and he didn't even turn when he was his mother walk into the room.

"But she's not…" Voldemort said.

"What?" He asked, looking to his mother but she looked genuinely shocked as well.

"Lucius disobeyed me just once…" Voldemort said, a bitter ring in his tone. "While he was still alive I couldn't get my hands on the child because he protected her but now… Now I know everything about her. Where she sleeps, what she eats, who she's with and why she's with them…" Voldemort said, his voice trailing off into nothingness. "She has not an inkling that she is of magical descent, Malfoy made sure of that but… she knows that she was put up for adoption and somehow lost her memory…"

"She's alive and she thinks she's a muggle?" Draco asked. "I-"

"Show me!" Narcissa demanded. "Show me my baby!" She screamed. "I just want to see her… I want to see her once all grown up… Please! I beg of you!" Narcissa fell to her knees and crawled to Voldemort. Draco couldn't look at her. "Please… Please…"

"As you wish. This is your reward for allowing me to use your manor as our headquarters." Voldemort said. "Persad, bring me my ball."

A moment later, Persad rushed back into the room, a large box in his hands. Voldemort took the box into his hands and opened it. He unfolded cloth after cloth until he reached a ball with a diameter smaller than a golf ball. Holding the ball up to the light he said, "One scratch and this ball creates an alternate universe…" He stood and walked to his desk and placed the small ball over what looked like a lens, and it took to the air, floating just inches above the lens. A blast of color washed over them as the ball expanded, forming a screen before them.

"This is her…" Draco felt himself shudder as a beautiful blond woman with gray-blue eyes appeared before them. She was smiling, carrying a large bag of groceries from the trunk of her car to the kitchen. "She goes by the name Ana." Voldemort said and he removed the ball with a swipe of his hand.

"Like I was saying, before Lucius died, I couldn't touch her but now-"

"Don't you lay a hand on her." Draco said, clenching his fist. "Don't you lay one hand on her."

"I suppose you're going to say, or else? It's too late, Draco." Voldemort said. "It's just too later for everything. It's too late for your mother not to hate you for what you father did but didn't really do to your sister for you. It's too late for you to be a respectable _normal_ wizard. And it's too late for me to say Diana is worthless to me because as twisted as it may seem, she's the leverage I've needed, Draconis."

"Leverage or not, I know what you're offering." Draco said. "And like I told you before, I'm not making any deals with the devil today."

"There will always be a tomorrow, then another day then another day until you just… run out of days Draconis. You're not choosing very wisely." Voldemort smirked, his eyes squinting in glee. "I doubt your mudblood girlfriend would enjoy life much without you and since you've given up… oh wait… that's right, your girlfriend already has a new boy to fawn over." Voldemort said as if he had just gotten wind of it or like he had forgotten it. But Draco knew… Draco knew that Voldemort never forgot…

"You can't touch Hermione." Draco said. "She's safe."

"She's safe with Dumbledore but Draco! She's not going to be spending the summer with the old man." He said. "She'll go home at the end of the school year and poof, every last link that holds you to that bunch of fools will be gone. You'll be one of us whether you choose to or not."

"You're a bastard." Draco said and Voldemort didn't smile. "You're a fucking bastard!" Draco shouted again, this time louder.

"Get him out of my sight. He's disgusting." Voldemort said and Persad did as he was told.

"Please Draco!" Shouted his mother after him. "Don't let them hurt Diana… She's my daughter…"

"I'm your son, mother. I'm your son…" Was all he could say in return as he was led back to his own torture chamber where Persad could do as he wished as long as Draco wasn't killed… yet anyway.

"Hermione…" Draco whispered.

"What was that? You wanted another kick to the ribcage?" Persad asked, and complied to Draco's fake request without hesitation. Draco heard and felt his rib crack under the blow but it didn't matter. Persad would mend it and break it again until his rib punctured his lung and Draco was finally allowed to die. "Another? You seem to like those because you just keep talking!" Persad yelled and kicked him again.

By now, Draco was numb, just waiting to die. Waiting to die… death… "A man is a boy who takes what is thrown at him, survives, and uses his brain to use his experience to his advantage."

"Bull shit." Draco said and groaned as another rib cracked. _A man is a boy who is forced into a situation and handles it with grace and honor… a man is someone who takes care of those he loves…a man is… a man is not afraid to die for something he believes in or is strong enough to deny himself that kind of moral victory to save those he loves._

"I need to do it." Draco said.

"You do, eh? What do you need to do?" Persad asked.

"Talk to Voldemort…"

A/N: Very sad, eh? It made me very sad… everything is just going so wrong. Draco feels like he has nothing to live for. His name is ruined, Hermione has 'a new boy,' and his mother already hates him for Diana's death… what else does he have but ambition? Sad…


	41. Krum is Found Dead

Chapter 41: Krum is Found Dead

The meeting had drained them all and as Hermione tried to sleep, she smiled to herself. The meeting and what happened afterwards kept running through her head word for word.

"Beauxbatons and Durmstrang are expected to arrive either tomorrow or the day after. I expect all of you to be hospitable and to take into account what they are coming from. Beauxbatons is… They are all very reclusive. They have had quite a loss that we ourselves are not strangers to." Dumbledore said.

"I heard from Jennie Caldwell that Malfoy was involved. He said his mum subscribed him to a newspaper and he got an article saying that he was the leader." Said a small Hufflepuff girl in the corner.

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." Hermione snapped, turning around. "It's vicious rumors like that that ruin people." Hermione mumbled and Dumbledore nodded.

"Miss Granger is right. We should not jump to any conclusions. As of now we have no proof that Mr. Malfoy was in any way-"

"Someone talking about me?" Hermione turned and felt herself flood with relief. He was fine… he looked a bit pale but… well, the rumors were terrible, what had she expected?

"The snake himself." Spat the Hufflepuff but when Draco passed a sneer over her she shut up fast.

"What's happened while I've been away at my mum's?" Draco frowned as he was filled in and Hermione thought she saw honest distress as well as surprise on his face as he listened.

"This meeting is dismissed. Share with your houses and… sleep well but do not forget that there are others suffering." Dumbledore preached and they all nodded sullenly as they left the small meeting room.

As they all walked away from the meeting Hermione pulled Draco aside.

"Pulling me into a dark corner, Granger?" He asked with a pleasant smile on his face. "I never figured you as the seductive type." He said and Hermione frowned. Something was definitely different about him. It wasn't her imagination at all.

"What's going on?" Hermione whispered and Draco shook his head slowly then faster.

"Nothing… Nothing at all. I've just missed you." He said pulled her into a deep hug, sealing his lips over hers and she smirked.

"What was that for?" She asked, pulling away.

"You're the most beautiful girl I've seen in years." He stated and Hermione suddenly remembered what she had seen transpire between Draco and Heather.

"Does that include your little Slytherin kissing partner?" Hermione asked, suddenly angry with him beyond words.

"You saw that? Then I suppose you stuck around long enough to see me push her away and call her a bloody skank to her face?" He asked and Hermione shook her head. "Then you don't have the right to be angry with me." He said matter of factly and Hermione placed her hands on her hips, her curly brown hair falling over her shoulder.

"I don't see how that is at all fair." Hermione spat.

"It isn't." Draco replied curtly. "And I never said anything I did was going to be fair. I _did_ tell you that I wouldn't hurt you and… though you're hurt, it wasn't me who hurt you." He said and Hermione stared at him in something like a mix of confusion and admiration.

"You must have had a nice conversation or two with your mother, Draco." Hermione said slowly and Draco inwardly cringed. "Because I don't know if you're the Draco that left without saying goodbye to me."

Draco once again pulled her into a tight hug and Hermione felt so secure that she was afraid to trust it.

"I want to celebrate." He whispered into her hair as he breathed heavily.

"Celebrate what?" Hermione asked.

"Us… Us being together… being alive!" Draco replied, his voice no more than a breath of air on her face.

"Not tonight… Not after the news we just received." Hermione said, looking up at him in guilty bliss. She didn't know what was happening or what was going on but she wasn't going to lie and say she didn't like it. She did… She liked this feeling a lot more than not knowing whether or not he was going to yell or scream or start a row.

"We should head to bed… It's very late and Dumbledore wouldn't exactly call this prefectorial work…" Hermione whispered and Draco smiled, she could feel his heartbeat below her fingertips. It was so fast…

"Don't go just yet… I want to show you something." Draco said and he pulled away rummaging through his pockets. "Ah… Here it is." He pulled something shiny from his pocket and handed it to her. Even before she felt its familiar shape in her hand she knew what it was… It was her mood necklace that she had broken. He had fixed it for her.

Suddenly, Hermione's common sense took over and she stepped away. The hurt look on his face seemed real but… "What is going on with you Draco. This isn't you it's… someone else."

"That's ridiculous." He breathed. "So I'm not allowed to treat you like I should have been treating you from the beginning?" He asked.

"If I believed that is what you were doing it would be fine but this… This seems too much like an act." Hermione said, scared to say anything lest it all just disappear…

"But actors have scripts and as you see, my hands are empty-"

"Don't play your little word games… You're acting strange and it scares me." Hermione snapped. "Yes laugh all you want but it doesn't change the fact that I am very serious." Suddenly a new thought struck her, a very morbid thought that pushed her even further from him. "_Finite incantartem!_" She said, pointing her wand at him and Draco looked almost staggered.

"What are you doing?" He asked softly.

"I… The… spell-"

"The imperius curse? Jesus Christ Hermione…" Draco spat. "I can't even look at you when you're like this. It really hurts, you know. I don't care if anyone else trusts me or not but you… you're the one I'm supposed to believe trusts me."

"I just… Look where you've just come from and… and then you come back acting all strange? You don't live with a bunch of lambs you know… What am I supposed to think, Draco?" Hermione asked her voice just above a whisper.

"The worst I suppose." He said. "I think you're right. It's very late and I don't want to suffer another detention until next term…" He turned and Hermione bit her lip, looking down at the necklace in her hand then back up to Draco who was now walking away. _You can't trust him…_A voice in the back of her mind warned. _He's different… he reeks of darkness, of lies…_ "But he needs me…" She told herself. "And I need him."

"Draco!" She called and he slowed but did not stop. "Please Draco." She started following after him and once she caught up he stopped and turned. She threw herself into his arms and as he held her close against him, Hermione didn't see the tear fall from his eye.

"Not back until one in the morning? Miss Granger out as well?" Daniel asked and Draco could not help but give a cocky smile that the Indian boy could not mistake. "You were together then?" He asked and Draco nodded. Daniel's attitude towards Draco changed immediately. "She could have been mine." He said and Draco's eyebrows rose suspiciously.

"I highly doubt that." He replied slowly. "I doubt she could have been anyone's." He added and Daniel smirked, looking back down at his magazine.

"I tried, you know." Daniel said. "I tried to get under her skin in the way you have but… she is too good for either of us and I think you know that." Daniel said and Draco could tell that that was not what he had intended to say.

"Yeah… I can admit that." Draco said, running a shaky hand through his silvery blond hair that looked so much like his sister's.

"Then why do you let her stay with you?" Daniel asked and though Draco could tell the little prick was digging at him he complied.

"Because it's her choice." He replied. "She thinks she needs me and I… I need her more than I've ever needed anyone." Draco said, sliding between the sheets in only his boxers.

"You're only going to hurt her." Daniel said and Draco pulled the chain on the lamp next to his bed. The room was plunged into the darkness only deep night could bring and Draco felt the fear in his stomach return.

"I know."

"Hermione!" Draco shouted but there was no reply, only utter silence surrounded by complete darkness. "Hermione where are you!" He shouted again and this time there was a loud scream.

_"Draco!" He heard and he ran despite the fact he could see nothing and the voice came from all directions._

_"Hermione… Tell me where you are!" He yelled. The scream repeated but this time, Draco heard the underlying pain lacing its way through her tender vocal chords. No words, just pain._

_Draco picked up his pace, not even knowing if he was going anywhere at all but… he had to find her. He had to find her before they killed her. "Hermione… Just tell me where you are."_

_"I'm here." Draco stopped, his energy draining from him like blood from an open wound. He was too late again. Turning slowly, he faced the beautiful pale shade of Hermione Granger._

_"No…" He whispered, falling to his knees and suddenly the surrounding area became familiar. It was the forbidden forest, the same place she had died every time he had this dream. "No…"_

_"You have to leave Draco, they know you're here." Hermione said. "You have to go." She warned but Draco could not pick himself up. The ache spread from his abdomen to his chest where it constricted his breathing. _

_"No… not without you." He said, gasping for breath through the silent sobs that shook him. This was just a nightmare. Just a nightmare but it was so real._

_"They're coming for you. They hear you. You have to leave… without me." She added in her soft, ghostly voice._

_"You're not going to stay here." He said._

_"Yes I am and if you don't go now, so will you." She said more forcefully. "I have a secret for you…" She said, the look in her eyes changing, dancing with something similar to malice. _

_"What is it?" He asked, choking on the words._

_"I'm alive." She hissed and her shade turned into a very large snake, the same snake in fact that had chased Draco every dream. But Draco had no fight left. He had failed. He was a failure… He had failed every time, he would continue to fail, and he couldn't' do a thing to stop it._

_"Draco!" He heard Hermione shout but now the snake was hovering over him._

_"You'll not escape me so easily my Malfoy." The snake cooed, transforming into Voldemort. "I'll make sure you never go back." He hissed, reaching out a gnarled finger to Draco's face and suddenly they were in a very dark room._

_"No!" Draco covered his ears with his hand as the shriek pierced the silence of the room. _

_"You get to watch…you wouldn't listen and now you get to watch her die…" Voldemort raised the window and moonlight filtered into the room, lighting a horrific scene just for Draco._

"No!" Draco shouted, jolting from bed. Hugging himself he tried to calm his breathing. He threw the covers from his sweat-sleeked body and stood, afraid to lie back down for fear of that same nightmare.

He walked slowly to the bathroom and stood, leaning against the sink in front of the mirror.

He thought about Hermione just then, and what they had done. He ached at the thought of it. He had kissed many many girls but when Hermione kissed him, she meant every touch and every word, which made it so much different than anything he had ever done.

They had not spoken so much as they had kissed and touched but in the end, her sense of propriety had quelled their feverish passion despite his almost boyish pleading.

But he was glad… he wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to lie to her especially if she was willing to share so much with him. He had convinced her that the change was normal, that he had had a significant experience… the truth was, he needed to make her think he was still good. He needed her to trust his lies. And she had. She had taken every single word he said to her heart. Why did she have to trust him so much?

He felt his lips curl in disgust. Not at her… at himself. He was disgusting. He was a liar, a bastard, and a death eater. He looked at his arm… There was no tattoo, no brand but he could feel the burn as if he had one there.

Drawing himself up to his full height he took a deep breath. Unless he wanted his dream to come true he had to keep her oblivious. If he didn't… if he gave her even an inkling that something was going on Voldemort would know and he would do horrible things to them both, but Draco could deal with it… But the thought of Voldemort's cruel cackling laugh as he did terrible things to the love of his life made him shiver uncontrollably. He was going to betray her, he knew, and the truth of it would hurt her, but it would always hurt him more…

"It's time to be a real man." He told himself, stepping into the shower. He needed to cleanse himself of the vile atmosphere his dream had brought upon him…

Hermione received a letter from Dumbledore the next morning summoning her. It had to be grave, his handwriting was shaky, something they had never seen with Dumbledore.

As she walked up his twisting staircase and entered his study, McGonagall left, tears swelling in her eyes.

"Yes?" Hermione forced once she stood in front of Dumbledore's average desk and he looked down at his hands, a small piece of parchment drawing his attention from her.

"We have received some bad news… terrible news, Miss Granger." Dumbledore began and Hermione realized she hadn't seen Harry this morning… or Ron…

"Yes…" Hermione urged.

"Sit down." Dumbledore said and Hermione did as she was told. "I am told you are still in frequent correspondence with one Viktor Krum." Dumbledore and Hermione's heartbeat didn't slow.

"Yes… I just received a letter from him this last Tuesday…" Hermione informed him.

"Well… I am sorry to tell you that he is dead… It was apparently a… a suicide." He said slowly.

"That's ridiculous… he was not suicidal…" She said immediately, the though of him dead not yet sinking in.

"One of his classmates watched him throw himself off the ship yesterday evening." Dumbledore said, not finding it particularly pleasant sharing with her the gruesome details.

"Why would he do such a thing?" Hermione breathed and Dumbledore looked away sadly.

"No one seems to know, Hermione." He said, his voice softening further. "McGonagall will be available to talk if you find yourself in need. I am truly sorry. We all have lost so much these past few years."

"But he… he was safe. He was coming here where he would have been safe." Hermione said. "I don't understand… suicide?" Dumbledore nodded and Hermione shook her head. "Who else knows?" Hermione asked.

"No one though I am sure it will be on the front cover of the D_aily Prophet_ this afternoon." The old man said, rubbing his temples. "Tell those close to you at your discretion."

"Yes… Yes of course." Hermione replied, standing. She felt her knees go weak and she sat down again, unable to trust herself.

"Are you all right, Miss Granger?" He asked and Hermione gave no reply. "Should I call someone to escort you to your dorm?"

"No… I will be just fine in a moment once the dizziness passes." Hermione said. "They will be arriving this evening, then?" Hermione asked and Dumbledore nodded with a kind smile.

"Minerva will be available to you… You are certainly not alone." He said gingerly.

"I know. Thank you, professor." Hermione said, standing again. As she walked from his office towards the great hall, she felt as though the walls were moving around her in slow, tired motion. Krum was dead. She had lost yet another friend… The sad thing was that she knew he would not be the last…

"What did he want?" Asked Harry as she sat at the table and Hermione's eyes filled with tears. If she said it, it would be true… Krum would really be dead.

"Hermione?" Ginny asked. "Are you all right?" But Hermione couldn't nod nor shake her head. She just stared straight forward, waiting for the tears to pass and when they did and she tried to speak, they returned and she was unable to subdue them.

"I have to go…" She said, standing. And as she hurried from the hall she realized she was being followed and stopped, turning to find herself in Draco's arms where she sobbed until her body was drained.

"What is it?" He asked and she told him… and for the first time in her life, Hermione felt like she belonged with him, that they were equal. And Draco felt for the first time that he was one of them, a Gryffindor. She had told him something she would have shared with Potter or Weaselby…"It's all right… Shh… you're safe with me." He soothed. "What do you want me to do?" He asked, desperate to stem the flow of tears from her sad eyes.

"You can't change the world, Draco." She whispered as if he didn't know that. "Just hold me." And they sank to their knees, holding one another. Though they had been much closer than this in a more passionate embrace, Draco figured this was what she needed. And when she reached for his hand, he thought to himself that there would be no other place and no other woman he would want to be with.

"I love you." He whispered. "I love you so much."

Hermione and Draco stood hand in hand as they greeted each student from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. Every student looked frail and sickly but a light flashed in their eyes as they entered the great hall. It was as if some hope had returned to their lives and Hermione was proud that they could offer them all the protection that they had always enjoyed and most likely taken advantage of.

"Are you Hermione Granger?" A particularly ragged Durmstrang student asked her and Draco shifted his weight uncomfortably. He had long, scraggly brown hair, dark circles under his eyes, and hollow cheeks that spoke of hard times and hunger.

"Yes. Yes, I am." Hermione Replied.

"May I have a word with you?" He asked, eyeing Draco. "Alone."

"I…" She was ready to decline but the look in his eyes told her that would be a mistake. "Yes of course. Excuse me Draco." Hermione said, releasing his arm only after giving his hand a tight squeeze and he nodded.

"I am Dimitri, Dimitri Barsukov." He introduced and Hermione nodded out of courtesy.

"I am Hermione Granger, but you know that don't you?" He nodded and looked at his feet.

"I was one of Viktor's friends at Durmstrang… I was the one with him when he… when he died." Dimitri coughed and she could tell he was near to tears. "He wanted me to give you this… He wrote it the night before we left… It's strange." He said.

"What is?" Hermione asked.

"That he wrote this the same night he warned me of something…" Dimitri replied shakily and Hermione could see that he was leading her somewhere with his words, his open ended statements.

"What did he warn you of?" She asked, not minding being led.

"I would assume the same thing he most likely warned you of in the letter he wrote to you." He said, pulling from his jacket a small enveloped sealed with wax.

Hermione opened the envelope and began unfolding it when Dimitri stopped her with a sharp motion of his hand. "Do not read it here, I beg you."

"Yes…" Hermione replied, placing it in a deep pocket of her robes. "Is there more?" She asked and Dimitri did not nod or shake his head. "I do not believe that Viktor was suicidal. I refuse to believe it. The last letter I received was as cheerful as a spring rain…"

Dimitri nodded slowly. "I do not believe it was suicide either." He sniffed and Hermione saw the shadow of haunting sadness pass over his face. She was almost positive he was remembering the incident.

"Was someone there?' She asked and he shook his head. "So it was only you two?" She asked. "And you did indeed see him throw himself overboard?" He nodded again.

"But something strange happened before. The only reason we were up on deck was to take a piss, excuse my language, when he… He began twitching." Dimitri described and Hermione shivered. "It looked like he was dragging himself towards the edge yet struggling against himself at the same time. He was groaning and yelling for help and I tried… I tried… But he's always been stronger than me and all I heard was his screaming as he fell then the silence as he hit the water." Dimitri sniffed loudly and wiped his eyes, Hermione pretended not to see. "When I looked over the railing I could see his hand above the waves and the occasional choking gurgle as his head broke the surface and he tried to take a breath. He was still fighting himself in the water and then he stopped moving. I knew he had been underwater for too long to still be alive and when I told my headmaster…" He trailed off bitterly. "Our headmaster told everyone that he committed suicide. No one would listen to me…"

"It sounds like…" Hermione hushed as she fought down the urge to vomit and she coughed. "It sounds as though someone used the imperius curse on him." She informed Dimitri, her eyes filling with tears, and he nodded.

"I thought the same…"

"When I read the letter may I share its contents?" Hermione asked and Dimitri shrugged.

"I don't know… I never read it… It's in English. Viktor is the only one of us who bothered to learn the spoken and written language… He did it for you." Dimitri said. "You were one of his closest friends and for that fact and that fact alone, I will trust you to be mine as well." Dimitri said and Hermione nodded, pulling him into a tight platonic hug that only two people in grieving could share.

"Thank you… It is better to know than to think he… to think that he did such a very selfish thing." Hermione said and Dimitri nodded.

"I know…" Dimitri replied. "Now you might want to go rejoin your gentleman friend, he's giving me a look that says death."

"That's how he stares at everyone." Hermione excused and Dimitri laughed.

"Everyone but you." He said.

"If only you knew our history. I think he's given me that look enough for everyone in this school and more." Hermione said, looking fondly at Draco who wore the most forlorn frown that she had seen all evening despite what these people were leaving behind.

"I think that's over with then." Dimitri gave her one last smile and turned. Hermione felt soft pressure on her arm and linked her hand gently in Draco's.

"What did he want?" Draco asked, obviously jealous.

"A friend to grieve with. He was Viktor's best friend." Hermione replied and Draco nodded in understanding.

"Would you like to eat?" Draco asked kindly and Hermione nodded.

"That would be nice…"


	42. Animagus Revealed and Hermione Goes Fox

Chapter 42: Animagus revealed and Hermione Goes Fox

"Professor… I was wondering if it would be at all appropriate to… well, plan a dance for the end of the year. Maybe to heighten spirits before we all go home." Hermione said in a low voice and there were mutters of agreement throughout the rest of the room.

"I think it would be a fine idea, Miss Granger." Dumbledore said before McGonagall could open her mouth in protest. "Do you already have a theme and a date in mind?" He asked and Hermione looked to Draco.

"We were thinking that a remembrance ball would be quite appropriate considering." Draco said.

"And we don't want to make it right before school gets out but… not too soon either." Hermione added to answer Dumbledore's other question.

"So this was a group effort?" Dumbledore asked and both Draco and Hermione nodded. "That is how prefects should work!" He said, cheerfully clapping his hands together. "How does this Friday sound to everyone?"

There were murmurs of agreement and people around the room tried to make translations for the foreign prefects although their English was already superb.

"Now what I suggest you do, Miss Granger and Mr. Malfoy, since you two are in league with one another in this, is make ballots and decide on a theme, whether you want it to be causal or formal, if you want everyone to be invited, so on and so forth." Dumbledore suggested and there was a lot of nodding. "I am sure you two will be able to think of a million little details to attend to, no doubt."

"Another question I had, Professor." Hermione began and Dumbledore nodded, waiting for her question. "Well… what're we going to do about classes… There is no possible way for school to continue in the manner it has been… Things have been utterly chaotic." Hermione stated.

"I see… it is like you to be concerned with the efficiency of classes and I commend you. However, I am sure you will be disappointed to hear that the staff has already discussed and come to a conclusion about this matter. Since all of the important testing of the year has been completed, school will be ended on Tuesday. Parents, if they wish, may send for their students but unless they want to provide transportation, you will all being staying on a sort of… in school holiday."

"What?" Hermione asked, caught by surprise.

"It will be an in-school holiday…" He repeated. "We will be offering daily visits to Hogsmeade for students who are allowed to go but they will be chaperoned and well planned." He went on and Hermione looked to Draco who had a happy smirk on his face.

"Can you believe this?" Hermione asked him as they exited the prefect meeting and Draco shrugged.

"I'm actually quite pleased with the old coot." Draco said.

"How can they just end classes two weeks in advance?" She asked, ignoring Draco's rude comment, and Draco took her hand in his, squeezing slightly.

"Don't worry about it. Just take it as it comes." He said. "For once just take it as it comes." He said with a small laugh.

"Easy for you to say. I am sure you were hoping something like this would happen." Hermione said.

"Doesn't everyone hope something like this will happen?" He asked, suddenly surprised at her attitude.

"Not someone who wants to be a teacher or someone who wants to head the department of Wizard Muggle relations or someone that wants to do anything worthwhile with their skills." Hermione exclaimed and Draco laughed.

"So that's it. You're worried about your future." Draco stated, a laugh in his voice.

"Aren't you?" Hermione asked shortly and Draco shrugged nonchalantly, then nodded.

"Of course I am but… It doesn't make any sense to me, and you know where I've come from, to plan it all when everything can be changed in an instant. Does that make much sense to you, planning it all out?" He asked and Hermione shook her head.

"When you say it that way it doesn't, but what I am after is knowing there's a place for me in the world and securing it." Hermione said and Draco decided they would finish this conversation whether it was after hours or not.

"There's a place for everyone in the world. It just depends on whether or not you live to fill it." Draco stated quietly, a familiarly sullen tone to his voice. Hermione glanced over at him to see him gazing straight forward. She suddenly realized how tired he looked and felt sorry that she hadn't noticed it before. "C'mon, let's head up to the library." Draco said and Hermione nodded slowly. There must be something he needed to talk about.

Once they had arrived and taken their seats in their lonely, closed off room, silence filled the space, making even breathing slightly uncomfortable and seemingly out of place in the silence.

"Is something the matter?" Hermione suddenly asked, taking the risk of hearing something that she'd rather not.

"I'm in a lot of pain." Draco said, surprising her with his honest reply.

"Why?" Hermione asked, folding her arms under her chin so she could look up at him from the surface of the table.

"I feel unworthy and lost between two worlds. One that I know is better and the other that I just plain know." Draco shuddered suddenly, and pulled his robes about him tighter.

"So why this feeling of unworthiness, this feeling of being lost?" Hermione asked. She wanted to get to the bottom of his problem but what she didn't realize was that Draco wasn't going to let her get any deeper than he wanted her to be.

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be in pain." He said slowly. The way he said it not so much as the words he spoke hurt Hermione in a way that could only be described as unnatural empathy.

"You have to know where it stems from." Hermione stated and Draco realized that she would have most likely read about this in some book she had come across. "If you don't want to talk about it then you don't have to. I'm just here to listen." And Draco knew without a doubt that she was sincere.

"It's not so much that I don't want to, more that I can't." He replied thickly, running his eyes roughly with the back of his hands. "There's so much that you don't know about me, much that would threaten you, and much that could make me lose any love for me you may possess."

"That's silly, Draco. I know you-"

"And it's when you say things like that that it makes me doubt you really do or worse, makes me doubt whether you really want to. Why would you accept me at face-value otherwise?" Hermione looked hurt that he had questioned her loyalty, hurt that he had questioned her period. "There are things one must face alone, Hermione. Things so dark and thing so powerful that you would stay away from them if you knew how. But rarely does one know how to avoid these things, rarely can they escape it."

As Hermione listened to his droning, she felt a seed of fear plant itself inside of her. The way he was talking said that he had already made a deal with the devil but she knew he hadn't. Maybe he was slowly losing sanity. Maybe he had grown content with his life at school with her and when he went home… something was awakened, something in his blood, and he was searching for a way to let go without hurting anyone, without hurting everyone.

"Draco… I think you really need to consider that you may be bipolar." Hermione suddenly interrupted and she saw too late that this was not the time for such an inappropriate observation.

"What?" He asked, looking at her in anger.

"It's just that…" She paused, thinking of the right words to say. "You've completely blindsided me with this." She said, her eyes filling with tears. "When you came back you were completely different and acted as if the entire world was open to you and now… now you act as if you've already made the decision that will decide which side of the world you will be on, which is whatever is opposite to mine."

_Maybe I'm tired of acting… so tired that I just won't do it anymore. If I'm hopeless, what is the point in acting like I'm not when I know I am and convincing others that I am not when I am? Well Draco,_ he thought bitterly to himself, _this is quite the mess you've made. _

"I'm sorry if I've bothered you." He said quietly.

"It's not that you've bothered me, Draco. You've scared me." Hermione said, leaning forward, taking his hand into hers. "What you have to know is that no matter where you are born, when you are born, and what you are born into you are never chained to that. Look at me!" She exclaimed, motioning to herself. "And then look at you… You've made decisions that have proven you above that belief and what I don't understand is that all of the sudden after visiting your family you've changed… You've reverted back to that self-pitying Draco that instead of making things happen, he believes that everything is happening _to_ him and he can't change a thing about it." Hermione said and though he knew she was right, her words were harsh.

"Maybe that's the real me." Draco stated stupidly and Hermione guffawed, looking away in disgust. "Maybe everything before now was an act."

"Well I wouldn't doubt it looking at you. You've gotten good at it again I see. Your mother baby you while you were with her?" Hermione asked, unknowingly hitting a very sore, very exposed nerve.

"You don't know a damn thing about how my mother treats me." Draco snapped and Hermione looked down at her hands.

"I'm sorry, of course you're right… it was wrong of me to-"

"If you even knew the hell she causes me, even then you would not begin to fathom the depth of my agony. How do you think it felt finding out that I have a mother that only protected me when she thought it would kill me and even then, the only reason she reached her hand out to place it calmly on my father's shaking arm, was because she had invested too much in me- no lost too much to me to waste it all in a single man's rage over the silly fact that I had forgotten to change my dress for the evening's formal party?" He asked and Hermione looked taken aback, shocked even that he could say so much in one breath.

"I didn't know, Draco. I didn't know." She whispered and Draco shook his head.

"You don't know me then. You don't know me do you?" He asked and Hermione paused, the look on her face caught between confusion and frustration.

"Why are you trying to push me away, Draco. Why do you want me to say things that will destroy us? Is that what you want? Us to be over?" She asked and Draco realized that was what he was doing. He had done what he promised himself he wouldn't do. He had let her doubt he was all right, thus endangering everything he had sacrificed.

His arm suddenly burned, searing with pain and he jumped, not able to help clapping a hand to his left forearm. Hermione watched the movement in horror, unable to contain her surprise and fear.

"Draco… you haven't?" She asked and he could not or refused to move as she reached hand forward and pulled his arm towards her. Draco saw seemingly in slow motion her lifting his sleeve and he watched and felt that tortured feeling he got when he lied to her as she breathed a sigh of relief and leaned forward, kissing his pale, unmarked skin. "I'm sorry I didn't trust you." She said apologetically and Draco smiled casually, pulling his sleeve down before she could finish inspecting the other pale scars along his slender, almost delicate wrist.

"So now may I ask _you_ a question?" He asked, leaning forward, and Hermione nodded, her face flushed in embarrassment.

"Anything."

"Why _do_ you trust me?" He asked and he stood, walking over to the couch they had placed in front of the fire so many months ago. He sat, curling up on the red couch like a dog and felt a pale, dizziness rush over him.

"You've not given me a true reason not to." She said, following him.

"Then you would believe me if I said I loved you?" He asked and Hermione laughed, lifting his head as she sat down and replaced it in her lap.

"You've said it before and I believed you then." She said, looking down into his grayish blue depths.

"And you would believe me then," He began, in a whisper, his eyes closing as he readied himself for long needed rest, "If I said that no matter what happens or what things come about, I'll always love you."

"Are you planning something Draco?"

"Promise me something, Hermione." He interrupted, not answering her question.

"What?" She breathed.

"Promise me that you'll never think too harshly of me and that even if you don't love me anymore at one point, that you won't forget what we have right now…" He said. "Please, promise me."

"Draco, I-"

"Promise me!" He demanded, forcefully this time.

"I promise…" And he closed his eyes, eventually going limp and Hermione smiled as the strained expression on his face faded and she swept a strand of his silver blond hair from his face and tucked it behind his ear. "I promise."

Looking down at him, Hermione was struck with a thought. _This must be what it's like when someone dies. All the pain and stress just leaves, making room for dreams and fresh starts. _She put a hand to his pale cheek and despite herself she checked his pulse with her other hand.

The steady thrum of his life beating beneath her fingers, Hermione could not help but love him. He may be moody, dark, and somewhat a mystery to her, but she could honestly say that no one in her life had ever made her heart beat faster, like it was racing her logic. No one else could make her question herself like he did… or maybe she didn't want anyone else to hold that power over her. Offering it to him was terrifying enough.

And then, as Hermione and Draco sat in complete silence, lyrics burst forth from Hermione's memory. It was a charming love song by Josh Groban and she could hear his sweet voice through her thoughts though the thought of the man himself never crossed Hermione's mind, it was only Draco she saw.

_This is going to be a long rest of my life…_

_Like the sound of silence calling_

_I hear your voice and suddenly I'm falling_

_Lost in a dream_

_Like the echoes of our souls are meeting_

_You say those words, my heart stops beating_

_I wonder what it means_

_What could it be that comes over me_

_At times I can't move_

_At times I can't hardly breath_

_When you say you love me_

_The world goes still, so still inside and_

_When you say you love me_

_For a moment, there's no one else alive…_

_And this is a journey that we're on_

_How far we've come and I_

_Celebrate every moment_

_When you say you love me_

_That's all you have to say_

_I'll always feel this way…_

_When you say you love me_

_Do you know how I love you…_

Hermione woke and Draco was gone. "Typical." Hermione said to herself with a small laugh. Standing, she did her best to straighten up her wrinkled clothes. She didn't even remember falling asleep but then again, in those situations you never do.

Walking over to the table, a small note caught her eye. "That had better not be a love note." Hermione whispered. "Then I'll be really worried."

She picked it up with apprehensive hands and slowly unfolded the fairly new piece of parchment.

"Meet me in the forest… I have a surprise for you…" She read aloud and at the bottom was a little drawing. An animated stick figure Hermione and Draco were kissing under a tree. "Cute… I didn't know he had such artistic abilities."

As she walked down the large staircase into the great hall that Saturday afternoon (the sun was already high in the sky) to follow Draco's instructions a thought hit her. _Forbidden forest… alone…_

"It's three in the afternoon, what could possibly happen in broad daylight?" Just as she was about to walk through the front door out into the fresh air, crisp hands took a hold of her and she paused.

"Did you hear as well, then? When did Hagrid send you an owl?" Asked the familiar voice of Ronald Weasley.

Hermione whirled around. "Hagrid's back!" She exclaimed and Ron took a step back. "When?"

"Harry didn't show you the letter? He just got back late last night. Harry was out…" his voice trailed off suspiciously but Ron wasn't about to betray his friend. "Well, Hagrid gave him the note and told him to show us so we could meet him today."

"Harry didn't have time to show me. I've been in the library all night… studying of course." She added when Ron's look turned to disgust.

"What're you studying for? Hopefully nothing oral." Ron said and for the first time in three month she felt like a part of the group again.

"Hey Ron all ready to- Hermione? What did you do with your hair?" Harry asked, the look of shock on his face made Hermione's face flush. Scrambling through her pockets she grabbed her compact mirror and held it up in front of her. "It's fine, I mean I like it."

"oh yes… I straightened it yesterday." She said with a sigh of relief as she recognized her more modern look. She _had_ forgotten, and Draco hadn't said a word about it, which made her a bit uneasy.

"You're coming then? I'm sure Ron told you. Hagrid's back!" Harry looked more full of life than she had seen him in a while.

"Has he already been told about Madame Maxime?" Hermione asked, sharing the question no one seemed too keen on.

"I don't know… We didn't talk much last night." Harry admitted.

"Well… I have…" Hermione's voice trailed off. She wasn't going to let them down when they needed her the most, she decided quite suddenly. If she was going to get them to understand she couldn't push them aside. Draco would have to understand. "Let's go then, I'm sure Hagrid'll have plenty of food ready and I'm starving." Ron looked at her like she was crazy and for a second, Hermione doubted her own sanity. Suddenly so many things were changing and they all seemed for the better.

They entered the cabin after knocking and once inside, Harry shut the door. "Hagrid?" Hermione called in the eerily quiet room.

"Oh!" Hermione suddenly exclaimed as her eyes fell upon something she would never forget. "Hagrid… It's us." She said, shielding her eyes.

"What in god's name are yeh all doin' in 'ere?" He roared, throwing more blankets over his visitor.

"We… Harry told us… for god's sake put some clothes on Hagrid!" Hermione shouted and pushed the other two Gryffindors whom were laughing hysterically out of the cabin as they waited for Hagrid to dress and wake his… erm… partner?

"Come in, come in now." Hagrid said from inside and Hermione could sense a tremor of embarrassment in his voice.

"Madame Maxime?" Ron asked, his jaw dropping. "Everyone thinks you're… well, deceased." He said and she nodded.

"I know but… I am not." She explained, a red tint on her face.

"Well we see that." Hermione snapped at the very tall and half-naked French woman before her. "Everybody is worried sick and where were you two?

"On our honeymoon A'course. We asked Dumbledore not to say and… I guess he kept his word, the ol' man." Hagrid said, his eyes brimming with tears. "We heard 'bout the attack on Beauxbatons and came right 'ome." Hagrid explained.

"Well, Madame Maxime… You're students are waiting." Hermione said in a harsh voice that every one in the room recognized as pure anger.

"Yes… yes of course."

Hermione walked to the edge of the clearing and entered cautiously. The sun had just begun waning when she had left the happy reunion of Maxime's students and her. As she moved deeper into the forest she realized that no matter what time of day it was, it wasn't going to be light in the forest.

"Draco?" She called. "Draco, I'm sorry I'm late but-"

"Shhh…" Came a whisper further in the forest and Hermione nearly jumped out of her skin.

She moved further into the darkness and soon pulled her wand out of her pocket. Lighting its end with a word the area in front of her seemed ignited.

Suddenly she heard a dog's yip to her right and as she turned she felt an enormous pressure on her chest as she was heaved over backwards. Looking up into the darkness she found herself face to face with a growling wolf. Before she had even realized what was going on or thought to scream a full grown young man by the name of Draco Malfoy was sitting on her chest, a smile in his eyes and on his face.

"You're a… you're an Animagus!" Hermione exclaimed and Draco smile mischievously.

"My father taught me when I was young. That is actually one of the few talents he gave that I am proud to claim." Draco said. Standing, he held his hand out to her and Hermione took it.

"I have just started studying to become one… McGonagall says it takes a long time to learn but it takes longer to be registered properly, which you are not." Hermione added, a glare spreading across her face in a joking manner.

"Register? So they can follow you around and mark your every move? My father said it is only fools who register, fools who want to get caught." Draco said, quoting his father for the first time in months.

"Get caught doing what, Draco? We haven't done anything wrong and unless you have, why else would you be worried about being registered?" She asked, shocked that he had used his father's reasoning against her.

"What is your Animagus form?" He asked, abruptly changing the subject.

"I believe I am a fox, if what the book I am reading is at all knowledgeable." Hermione said with a proud grin. "And I am left to assume you are a wolf. A conniving hunter who is loyal to only his pack and prays to the moon… sounds like you." Hermione said with a laugh that made Draco shiver.

"Yes… and you a fox. Scientific relation: Vulpes vulpes_… _Clever and cunning, foxes are well known for their cute yet efficient looks and bushy tails. Granger… I do believe I can imagine you as a fox. You are rather vulpine." He said.

"I am no more vulpine than you I am afraid." Hermione said carelessly and Draco asked her about her day. Sharing with him the frightening scene she encountered in Hagrid's hut, Draco laughed until he turned blue.

"So that brute, I mean kind fellow was actually bedding her?" He asked and when Hermione nodded knowingly he slapped his knee and fell into a renewed fit of laughter.

"What's so funny about it after all?" Hermione asked and Draco shrugged.

"The thought of that clumsy man bedding anyone, I guess…" Draco said.

"You're not bedding anyone, does that make you laugh?" Hermione asked, hitting an unlikely sore spot.

"No… it doesn't but…How can you be so sure?" Draco asked.

"Are you?"

"No… of course not…" Draco said, leaning back in the grass, hands folded behind his head. Hermione was still sitting up, supporting herself with her right hand. "But unlike other fellows who aren't getting any from the girls they know, I have a plan." Draco stated playfully and Hermione smiled, looking to Draco then away.

"Is that so? Would you mind sharing a bit of this plan with me?" She asked, enjoying just the sound of his voice and the careless feel of the evening that had come upon them in quite the hurry. It was almost like the night before had melted away…

"I dunno. It may be bad luck to share plans with someone who may be involved." Draco said, looking up into her chocolate eyes. "I wouldn't want you to see it coming after all." Hermione's smile faltered, the playful mood wasn't completely gone but an air of seriousness had intervened. "I'm sorry… I don't mean to be so bold…" he said then burst out laughing. "Who am I kidding? Yes, I do." He pulled her down with him and began tickling her.

Shouting, Hermione writhed under his playful, daring, and altogether bold ministrations but when things went silent and Draco stared into her eyes- no right through them she was sure that if he asked her to… she would have done anything.

"Was that your plan?" She asked.

"Did it work?"

"Yes…"

"Then yeah… it was my plan." But when she leaned forward, ready for his first kiss, first touch, first anything he pulled away.

"It's late, we should get back before the possibility of sneaking in unnoticed has totally diminished." He said, clearing his throat.

"You know you just ruined your chance." Hermione said with an ironic, half-bitter laugh and Draco returned it with a sigh and a tight smile.

"I know but… I respect you more than this. Let's go…"

_Strange… very strange that after every girl I have ever touched this one I could not… _

As Draco lay in bed that night, not exactly excited about his very adult decision he sighed, thinking. Maybe if he wouldn't have thought about it so much these past few months, he would have been able to do it guiltlessly, but the fact was, he had mentally raised sex with Hermione to a level that would do neither of them any good. It was beyond just being sex to him, and that was a big problem. Before Draco could think any more about this line of thought, he changed tracks.

Voldemort was such a fucking liar! Hermione had never even questioned him about what had happened at Beauxbatons even though she no doubt had a copy of the magazine his name and guilt was printed all over.

He had been had and sadly… there was nothing he could do about it now… He had to finish what he started. For him and Hermione's sake.

But he wasn't only doing this for him and Hermione, he recalled. What about Diana, the innocent pawn in all of this? What about his sister whom he thought he had lost so long ago. She was all he would have when all this was over… Hermione would hate him for making her love him and he would hate himself for loving her as much as he did. But what the hell! You only live once, might as well make it hell!

"Not for you!" He reminded himself. _So I got a bit confused… it's too late now._ "That's your way of relinquishing responsibility for your actions." _Shut up, Hermione…_


	43. One Hundred Points From Every House

A/N: as you can see, I have finally posted the new chapter. Its taken me forever, but I do believe I have done well in not making it too different from my normal style. The next few chapters may be different from what I wrote before, but I haven't written anything on it in forever and a day. Enjoy… there will be more. This time I mean it.

Chapter 43: One Hundred Points from Every House

Hermione sat at down at the breakfast table and within ten minutes she was practically smashed. Looking around the hall she observed (with satisfaction) that few others were better off. _Thank god It's Tuesday!_ She thought to herself, hardly something she would say aloud.

"I heard the dance has been changed to Wednesday, Hermione. Someone told me to ask Hermyon." Said someone behind her and Hermione turned to face a fifth year from Durmstrang, a rather pretty girl with long auburn hair and sparkling green eyes.

"It's Her-my-oh-nee." She corrected easily. "And no… It's still on Friday, you'll have plenty of time to buy a dress if that is what you are worried about." Hermione replied looking at her cloak and the girl smiled and nodded, showing off her perfectly white teeth.

"Good… thank you. My… date sister was killed and I want to look good to make him feel better." She informed Hermione, her accent charming her as Viktor's had at one point in time. But she had grown older and realized that one needed more than good looks and money. Viktor was very intelligent but he was- had been very curt, sweet, but curt.

"That's excellent. Do you know what kind of dress you will be getting?" Hermione asked and the girl shook her head quickly. Hermione suddenly realized that this girl looked like she had just recently come to her senses about her femininity. "Would you like to go with my friends and I? I know that I would be pleased to have you come with us."

"That would be nice… I was going to ask someone but… I was very frightened. You are so… poplar?" She said and Hermione giggled.

"Popular," She corrected good-heartedly. "And you have to be kidding me. I'm not popular by any means."

"Oh… you are… cool, then?" Once again Hermione laughed.

"I'm a dork, a bookworm some say. I'm not cool." Hermione paused, looking at the girl before her. "You're very pretty you know." Hermione said and the girl blushed a bright pink. "I'm Hermione Granger."

"I am Amelia Barsukov." The girl replied.

"Are you Dimitri's sister by any chance?" Hermione asked and the girl's eyes danced and her face came alive as she nodded vehemently.

"You know Dimitri? He is my brother." She said. "He is older by… one years." She said showing Hermione her pointer finger to clarify her meaning.

"He is graduating this year then?" Once again, the girl nodded.

"I was to… marry his friend Viktor but he… died." She explained. "Then I met Francois and I think we are in love."

"You were engaged to Viktor? But you are only a girl." Hermione said, reeling.

"It was not formal yet but my father was considering it a good match, my brother being his best friend." Amelia said and Hermione nodded. _That's why he didn't tell me… he didn't know._

"I should be going now, off to the last classes of the year, you know." Hermione said, standing and the girl nodded.

"I also wanted to tell you… Your boyfriend is very cute." Amelia said and Hermione could have sworn she had lost her accent and there was a certain fire behind her eyes that Hermione had not seen before.

"Boyfriend?"

"The Malfoy…" for a second the girl looked confused then she looked straight at Hermione and gave her her shy smile. "Thank you for inviting me." Her accent was back and she acted as if nothing strange had transpired.

_Odd…_

"So the plan is that we have an after dance party in the prefect commons, you know, a last farewell and all." Ron said in a low voice.

"I don't know… do you think the teachers will approve?" Hermione asked.

"They don't have to. We only invite those whom we want to come and everyone else is left in the dark. It's the perfect plan." Ron seemed very pleased with himself and Hermione had to admit, the idea was very appealing, even to her.

"What is this party going to have that the dance didn't? I mean, what's the point of it?" She asked, suddenly suspicious.

"Alcohol you bloody moron!" Ron snapped and Hermione looked surprised that he had been so honest about it.

"Right… and you thought I would agree knowing that because…" Hermione said, her voice trailing off.

"Come on Hermione!" He exclaimed. "I'm sure even you and your Slytherin toy would have a good time, even though he's not invited, I'll add." Ron said and Hermione crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine he can come… just keep him away from our stuff and don't tell him any passwords."

"I'm hurt-"

"Hey, don't look at me like that… It's happened before."

"When I was under the spell of a veritaserum draught!" Hermione snapped.

"That was administered by none other than the boy you're inviting to the party, I'll bring to your attention." Ron snapped right back. "_Oh but he's changed…_" Ron mocked. "Yeah right… Once a Slytherin and a bloody slimy git, always a Slytherin and a bloody slimy git…"

"Has anyone ever told you to grow up?" Hermione asked and he nodded.

"Didn't listen to my mother then and I'm certainly not going to listen to _you_ now." Ron finished with a smile.

"And I really can't say I expected any less from one such as yourself." Hermione replied, raising her nose in the air.

"And what exactly do you mean by that?" Ron asked, a smirk on his face.

"I meant only that you, sir, are much more my intelligence subordinate." Hermione said with a smile as she turned and walked the other way.

"What about my party idea?" He called after her and Hermione shrugged.

"Do what you want Ron, but you had better not get caught." Hermione almost looked back to see the expression on Ron's face, but denied herself the simple pleasure to add to the weight of her statement, but she did have a good time imagining it. His eyes bulging in surprise, his inability to speak… she gave a laugh as she exited the common room and entered the hallway.

"I have a surprise for you." Came a voice from behind her and Hermione turned, a smile on her face, but she couldn't see anyone.

"I have one for you too." Hermione replied. "Where are you?" She gave a little jump as she felt Draco's arms wrap around her. "You and that damn invisibility cloak." She snapped even as she giggled. She felt his lips on the side of her face and danced away. "I don't kiss invisible Slytherins," she said with a wide smile. "It's a personal rule of mine."

"Since when?" She heard the drawled reply and she watched in interest as she watched Draco appear from nowhere and folded a large square of silvery, slick material over his arm. He straightened his hair and Hermione was taken aback by his almost casual appearance.

"All black all the time." He said as if he could read her mind as he motioned gracefully to himself.

"I didn't know that included jeans and a t-shirt." Hermione replied as she placed her hands on her hips. "And I see you've added a new piece of jewelry to your ensemble." She added motioning to the small silver chain wrapped around his neck.

"This?" He asked as he reached behind his head and messed with the clasp. He took it off and walked towards Hermione, holding it out to her. "I felt in a dragon-like mood if you know what I mean…"

"No, I don't, but it is your name sake so I'll allow it." She said jokingly, holding it back out to him but he didn't take it.

"You try it on…" He said. "I think it would look good around your neck."

"It's funny, a few months ago that's what you were thinking about your hands…" Hermione said it before she really thought about it and was shocked at her own boldness. What was with her today? "Hmm… a Malfoy's dragon around my neck… sounds foreboding…" She uttered as she turned around and she handed him his necklace, holding her hair up with her hands so he could place it around her neck.

"You know, my father always said that the reason he named me Draco was because there was a basic similarity between a dragon and a Malfoy." Draco said as he slowly wrapped the chain around her neck and began doing the clasp in the back.

"And what is that basic similarity?" Hermione breathed.

"Some people can handle dragons and some people can't." He stated, turning her around. He reached forward and straightened the small dragon on the chain so it was facing forward and was centered.

"That doesn't explain the similarity." Hermione said, a knowing smirk on her face.

"The similarity is that, like dragons, some people can handle Malfoy's and some people can't."

"I can handle the dragon, but I'm not too sure if I can handle the Malfoy." She said only half-joking.

"I guess that would be the ultimate test. You can fight the wild, ferocious animal, but you struggle with the tame and docile one… you are a unique woman." He said, wrapping his arm around her and he led her down the hallway.

"What if I said that the dragon is the tame one?" She asked, fingering the pendant around her neck as she allowed herself to be led through hallway after hallway.

"Then I would say there are much stranger things in the world than a tame dragon." He replied, looking to his right and down into her eyes.

"Where are we going?" Hermione suddenly had the sense to ask and Draco laughed.

"Trust me, you'll like it, but it's going to get cold." He said as he threw his invisibility cloak over them both. It felt quite different and less stuffed than Harry's, probably because there was only two of them trying to fit under one, but they still had to be in very close proximity in order to fit properly. "Just a bit further…" He whispered and Hermione nodded.

A few minutes later as they moved deeper into the bowels of the school Draco paused at the wall. "What is this?" she asked and he motioned for her to be quiet.

"I want to show you something, something from my past." He stated. "_Harry Potter's a squib…_" He whispered and Hermione was about to say something but she watched as the wall opened up and he walked out from under the cloak, motioning for her to follow him closely.

He entered the Slytherin dormitories and though there were only six Slytherins in the common room, they all looked up and stared for a moment before looking back down to what they were doing. Hermione's breathing was becoming ragged… she was scared that she would trip or something or breath too loud and they would know. She felt like a fish sneaking into a shark tank and the feeling wasn't great.

Walking to another door, Draco paused but Hermione was looking elsewhere and she ran straight into him. "Ouch!" She exclaimed and Draco cleared his throat.

"Stupid door." He snapped, hitting the wall before throwing a glare backwards over his shoulder and Hermione smiled, almost laughing aloud.

Uttering a password she couldn't hear, the door opened and they entered a more private room… Draco's room.

Once they were inside, Hermione threw off the cloak, an odd look on her face. "What is it exactly that you wanted to show me in a dungeon in the deepest, darkest part of the school?"

"Look around you… Not one Gryffindor has set foot in this room… ever." He said.

"All right," Hermione agreed. "How is that something from your past?"

"How is it not?"

"Sometimes I don't understand you," Hermione said quietly, an odd look on her face.

"Most of the time you don't have to," he replied. "You just have to love me."

"I do…"

"So, I hear you need someone to smuggle large quantities of alcohol to your little after hours party…" he said, a mischievous smile playing across his place.

"Yeah… Ron and Harry wouldn't know where to start."

"Well… first, we need to find out where we can get some…"

"Hogsmeade… I already know where Ron was planning to go," she replied to Draco's unspoken question.

"Then let's get the invisibility cloak and get going."

Hermione's head was filled with warmth as she slowly faded into oblivion. The beer was bitter, but it felt good once it hit just right. Drinking had never been easy for her, but Draco made drinking a lot easier.

"You're not even phased," she said, a dreamy expression on her face.

"Give me another hour and we'll see," he said, tipping back another.

"In another hour, I'll have no control over anything I say or do," Hermione said with a giggle and Draco felt the innocence in her.

"I don't know how you hid this from the teachers, Hermione, but you did a hell of a job," Draco said with a smile.

"Charms are very… very convenient amenities… you should have paid more attention in Flitwick's class…"

"Even when you're drunk, you lecture," he said with a laugh. "Some things never change."

Suddenly the music stopped and everyone in the common room stopped moving.

Both Draco and Hermione stood and looked towards the entrance to the common room.

There stood McGonagal in her green night robes looking more severe than anyone in the history of Hogwarts had ever seen.

"Shit," Draco muttered.

"We're in so much trouble," Hermione followed.

"Trouble, Miss Granger, Hardly covers what you're in," Drawled a voice from behind them. Hermione turned to find herself face to face with none other than Professor Snape.

"I believe," McGonagal began, her voice so low that it echoed. "that this little stunt means one hundred points from every house…"

A/N: so, alas… My passion for this story has returned. The guilt has finally gotten to the point where I can't take it any longer. I am going to TRY to pick this back up, but there's sooooo much that I don't remember. Give me some time and I will do my best. Forgive me and you shall be rewarded with more…


	44. The Last Exam Revamped

Chapter 44: The Last Exam (revamped!)

* * *

It was mid morning before anyone realized what had happened, but when word got out, there were a lot of angry people who wanted to know what the hell had happened to all of their house points.

Lucky for Hermione that McGonagal had already planned quite the morning speech, or else Hermione would have had to put something together herself. But that was the last thing on her mind.

Hermione Granger was, at the moment the speech was given, suffering from a severe hangover, her first ever.

Her ears were ringing, her stomach was in her throat, and Hermione could honestly say that she had never been less sure of her intelligence than she was at that moment in time.

Bits and pieces of the speech entered her head, but for the most part, Hermione was relying on Ron and Harry to tell her what was going on.

When the hall was dismissed, Hermione was introduced to McGonagal's worst punishment yet.

"I can't believe it," Ron said.

"Yeah," agreed Harry.

"What? What is it that you can't believe?" Hermione asked, squinting her eyes against the sun as they walked outside.

"We've all got detentions and there's going to be an exam encompassing the school rules…" Ron replied.

"All of us?"

"Every last student in this school has bloody detention," Ron snapped.

"This was your idea, Ronald Weasley," Hermione snapped back.

"Yeah, but its you and your boyfriend who got the bloody alcohol," Ron said.

"And I suppose we forced it down your throat at gunpoint as well?" Hermione asked, an amused look on her face.

"You offered… who am I to refuse?" he asked.

"Well, at least this school year went out with a bang," Harry said with a smile that never failed to make Hermione see the brighter side.

"Not exactly the bang I was looking for, Harry," Hermione said. "But you're right…"

"So, did she say when this test was going to be?" Hermione asked.

"After the dance, I think she said," Harry replied.

"We're still having the dance?" Hermione asked in disbelief.

"Yes… she said that since we have no classes for the rest of the year and our punishments have been planned, she sees no reason why we shouldn't get to keep the dance," Ron answered. "To keep up school _morale_ were her word's correct me if I'm wrong Harry…"

"Has Draco asked you?" Harry asked and Hermione looked at him. They usually didn't talk about him.

"Not yet… I think we both assumed it was off…"Hermione replied. "Why?"

"I was just wondering," Harry said.

"Speaking of the little git, I didn't see him at breakfast…" Ron butted in and Hermione rolled her eyes. _Here we go again…_

"Hermione!" Draco called. Hermione turned, took one look at him and a concerned look came over her face.

"Are you feeling all right, Draco?" she asked as he neared. "You aren't looking so well…"

"I wanted to ask you…" he began nervously, shuffling his feet. "Will you be my date to the end of term dance?"

"With the use of such formality, how could I refuse?" she asked, a little irritated. "Of course I'll go with you."

"Good…" he said quietly.

"Is something the matter?" Hermione asked and Draco paused, then shook his head.

"No… really, its nothing." He lied. Even as he said it, he fingered the letter he had just received in his pocket.

"Then why do you look so pale and guilty?" she asked.

"First of all, I always look pale," he said and Hermione nodded in agreement. "And second of all… my guilt is for not having asked you sooner."

"You're so good at telling me what I want to hear," Hermione laughed. "And if I were any less confident, I might let your flattery woo me."

Silence fell over their conversation and for a moment, they just looked at one another, trying to figure out what was to come next. Hermione felt that nervous flutter in her stomach that told her something was wrong… something was wrong with him… and Draco felt his heart aching with the guilt he felt weighing down on him. Neither knew what to say to explain themselves so both were silent.

"Are you excited about the exam?" he suddenly asked, coming back to life.

"I wouldn't say excited…" Hermione said slowly. "But I am prepared for it."

"I wouldn't expect anything less," Draco mocked, his voice filled with a charming charisma that she loved. "Who hasn't read the school rule book?"

"After the exam was announced, hopefully no one," Hermione stated with a wide smile and a laugh. "I'd hate to be the one to find out what happens if you don't pass…"

Draco gulped loudly, contorting his face in false fear and Hermione giggled.

"You of all people should know enough of the rules to pass," Hermione said and Draco thought it was a compliment. "After all, you have to know them in order to break them right? And I'm pretty sure you've broken most, if not all of them."

"You're just jealous," Draco said with an arrogant smirk.

"And how do you suppose?" Hermione asked, truly curious as to his reasoning.

"Well… I know you," he stated. "And somewhere deep inside there, I know there's a little rule-breaker," he said, poking at her stomach playfully. She batted his hand away, laughing at his suddenly cheery behavior.

"You, sir, couldn't be more wrong," she said, feeling suddenly dizzy on her feet.

"You okay?" he asked, reaching out a hand to steady her. Hermione nodded, feeling really ill. A wide smirk spread across Draco's features and he laughed out loud.

"What is so amusing?" she asked, trying to stay calm. She was so close to retching that she could taste the sour bile in her mouth.

"Hangover," he said and Hermione had no idea how much one word could make her smile. "Your first?" he asked and she nodded. "Always the worst…"

"Thank you Dr. Phil," Hermione snapped, smacking his arm mockingly.

"Potter and Weasley await…" Draco suddenly said, looking beyond her, a frown on his face. Their eyes met for a second and Hermione tried to smile, but it turn out a horrible imitation of one.

"They… I don't think they… I'll see you tomorrow, Draco," she said, forcing herself to stop trying to explain their behavior.

"All right, love," Draco agreed. Pulling her against him, he pressed soft lips to the top of her head and held her against him for a moment before releasing her. "Try not to move around too much," he advised her tenderly.

"I promise I won't frolic," Hermione stated sarcastically and Draco ruffled her hair.

"Good, save the frolicking for the autumn mists," he said, turning his mouth up into a smile devoid of all happiness. He gazed at her longingly for a moment before turning slowly from her and walking away.

* * *

The great hall was so silent that the scratching of quills could have caused an avalanche. Draco was unnerved. McGonagal hadn't stated what would happen to those who failed and looking down at his own exam, he got the faltering feeling that his grade wasn't going to be excellent.

_What is forbidden on the fourth floor on Tuesdays?_ He asked himself. _A) Eating of anything other than fruit B) speaking to someone other than those in your house C) skipping or D) breathing._ Draco sighed as he read and reread the question. He had no idea… _I'm feeling like a jackass… **D. **_He scratched the letter on the parchment haphazardly and continued with the rest of the ridiculous questions.

Some he knew, some he didn't, and some, he didn't even read. The test meant little to him and after the summer, it would mean even less… _don't think about it_, he told himself. _Don't think about it… not yet…_

Six hours of silence later, Draco slowly walked his parchment to the front of the hall and handed it over to McGonagal. Looking over the test through her spectacles, McGonagal sighed as she went through them with a quill and marked the ones he missed.

"Eight hundred and forty seven right out of nine hundred," McGonagal said, giving him a pleasantly surprised smile and Draco was sure the shock was evident on his face. "Mr. Malfoy, you have earned a ninety four percent…"

As McGonagal was filing his test, Draco heard someone approach from behind. Turning, he saw that it was Hermione, followed by Daniel.

McGonagal motioned Draco out of the hall as she took Hermione's test and Hermione threw him a proud smile.

Draco wandered aimlessly out of the great hall and into the corridor just outside. There, he sat and waited. Within moments, Hermione walked through the door, a not so pleasant expression on her beautiful face.

"Well?" Draco asked.

"Ninety seven," she said despairingly and Draco clicked his tongue in reprimand.

"Ninety seven?" he asked. "Shame on you… you could have done much better than a ninety seven percent had you studied."

Hermione looked up at him, tears in her eyes. "No… ninety seven right. Ninety seven out of nine hundred," she cried and Draco didn't know what to say. Reaching out a comforting hand, Hermione slapped it away, suddenly all smiles. "Just kidding. Ninety seven percent. Eight hundred and seventy out of nine hundred…" she said. "That one about the fourth floor confused me though… that one I know I got wrong."

"The one about what's forbidden on Tuesdays?" he asked and Hermione nodded. "I got that one right…" he said honestly and Hermione looked surprised.

"What was it?" she asked.

"Breathing."

"I put eat anything other than fruit…" Hermione said disappointedly and Draco shrugged.

"You did fine," he said, taking her hand in his.

The door form the great hall opened again and Daniel stepped through. Draco had felt an acute dislike for the boy as of late. Draco had an instinctual feeling that he had somehow or another become… competition and when it came to something he really wanted, Draco never lost.

"What did you get?" Hermione asked and Daniel smiled widely.

"Seventy-four," he replied and Hermione patted him on the back.

"Seventy four percent is amazing."

"I meant to say eight hundred and seventy four…" Daniel corrected himself. "Ninety seven percent…"

"We got almost the same score… but you did a little better than I did," Hermione said.

"I guessed on all but three," Draco input and Hermione stuck her tongue out at him, which made him laugh.

"You're blessed with guessing skills then," Hermione said and he nodded. "Well then… guess what?" she asked.

Draco opened his mouth to reply when all of the sudden the room went dark and Hermione's eyes burst into flame.

"It's time!" she rasped, glaring at him with the hatred of a million black souls. She reached forward, grabbing his arm and he felt a sharp burning on his forearm and lifted his sleeve, frantically looking for what was causing it. The dark mark suddenly appeared, deep and dark. Intricately ugly, darkly beautiful…

Draco was jolted back into reality and Daniel and Hermione were looking at him, smiles on their faces.

"Well?" she asked.

"I have to go." Draco jumped to his feet and walked from them as quickly as his feet would carry him.

Turning into a dark corridor, Draco leaned up against the cool stone wall, sighing out loud. Feeling fear envelope him as he lifted his sleeve, he peered at the tender flesh of his arm. Nothing was there. He wiped the sweat from his brow and sank onto his haunches, then sat down.

"Merlin, what am I going to do?" he asked himself, running a nervous hand through his blond hair. He could lie to her any more. He had to tell her. But whether or not he would have the courage, or even the opportunity were things under great scrutiny.

* * *

A/N: inspiration struck and could not be ignored. here is the revamped chapter i promised with another one soon to come. Tell me what you thought :)


	45. What if Hell DOES Freeze Over

Chapter Forty-Five: What if Hell Does Freeze Over

* * *

Hermione looked at her image in the full body mirror and felt unsure. She was stunning in blue, she was elegant in red, but Hermione Granger had never, not once in all her life, deigned to wear… _pink._

If someone had asked her the day before when she would wear a pink dress to a dance with the Slytherin Prince, Hermione would have said _when hell freezes over and pigs fly…_ well, Neville was still grounded and as far as she knew, hell was just as hot as it was the day before, yet she found herself wearing a soft, rose pink gown with long, elegant sleeves, layers of choppy lace, a single ribbon of pale pink wrapped just beneath her bust line, and a shockingly low collar. It was enough to make it quite obvious to all those who looked upon her that Hermione had a woman's figure.

"You look wonderful," Ginny had said. "Would you like help with your hair?"

Hermione had nodded, suddenly frantic. She had forgotten all the work that went into making her hair manageable and she wanted everything to be perfect. For some reason, Hermione got the feeling that this night was going to stick in her mind for a long time to come.

When Ginny was done, Hermione could have kissed the girl. Her hair was pulled back in a loose twist that showed all of the different layers of her honey brown curls. It was pinned down with a beautiful pink pin that Ginny had found among her things and a ribbon had been tied neatly within the folds.

Looking at the completed image, Hermione tried to think of a word for pink. _Pink makes you look… young?_ She asked herself. Shaking her head, she grasped for something better. _Tired?_ She asked and a smile spread across her features. _Smart? Angelic… eager to please… nervous… scared… in love._ As the words came to her mind, Hermione tried to brush them away, all the while knowing they were true… _Pink is for being in love_, she decided, against her mind's better judgment.

Drawing herself up proudly, she straightened her dress and pulled her purse up onto her arm where it rested carefully on her shoulder. Adjusting a single curl, she was satisfied that even Draco would be pleasantly surprised.

* * *

Draco looked at her as she descended the staircase and he felt dizzy just watching her approach. She looked like a goddess coming to earth… he felt like one of those mortal men blessed with the sight of Athena only seconds before she destroyed them… But Draco wasn't worried. She had been destroying him little by little all year long, and at the moment, he didn't care if she finished the job.

"You look radiant," he said, taking her arm calmly as she reached the last step and Hermione glowed with the compliment.

It had been months since he had seen her in a formal dress and it was just as shocking as the first time. _Damn, you would make a wonderful Malfoy,_ he thought to himself as he looked at her.

She walked with her back straight, chin level with the floor, and a regal grace was in her figure as she walked with him, her arm linked steadily in his. But she was laughing and smiling all the while. Talking to anyone who spoke to her pleasantly and with seemingly apt attention. But Draco knew better. Her eyes were bored.

Every few seconds, even when elbow deep in an animated conversation, she would look to him out of the corner of her eye as if assuring herself that he was still there.

"You're being rude," Draco whispered with a smile as McGonagal, Hermione's most recent converser, walked away.

"How so?" she asked, a truly disturbed expression on her face as she looked up at him.

"Do you even realize how much you stare at me?" he asked and she looked quickly away, a blush rising to her cheeks. _So she did…_ "I'm not complaining," he assured her with a nudge. "But they might," he added, nodding towards the table where two thirds of the golden trio sat. They both were staring and neither looked very happy about what they saw.

"Shocking," Hermione drawled and they shared a subdued laugh. "But it does look as if there is someone who wants _your_ immediate attention, Draco," Hermione said and Draco's heart faltered.

"Where?" he asked and Hermione turned her head imperceptibly towards one of the tables in the back corner of the great hall. There sat Heather in all her Slytherin glory, her eyes glaring through the crowd with unhidden interest. She wore a dress of the darkest green, plain in make, but its simplicity was elegant. Her black hair was pulled only half up, which gave her pale face a rounder, more delicate shape. "I don't know what she would want," he said honestly, looking at Hermione in confusion.

"I could think of one or two things," she said almost bitterly.

"Should I?" he asked and his eyes were asking her for permission.

"Go ahead," Hermione replied, shoving him gently away. "Just promise me that you won't let her drag you down any dark corridors. In that dress, I don't think that even I could resist her."

"That's a promise," he replied and stalked towards Heather.

"Long time no talk," she drawled tapping her long fingernails on the table cloth, filling the small area with the sound of light thuds. "Voldemort is coming." She said suddenly and her words forced the breath from his chest.

"Coming?" he asked and Heather nodded, looking around carefully to make sure there were no prying ears about.

"Here."

"How?" Draco breathed. "And why?"

"He's coming to collect you, his Dark Prince," Heather replied with a nonchalant shrug. "I know all about your promise…"

"How?" he asked. Heather smiled, her lips turning upward deviously. He looked down and suddenly realized that a black wrist brace with designs of flames running over it covered her left forearm. "All along?" he asked and she nodded. "Pity."

"Don't' bother," Heather said. "I know what I gave up. I think the question is whether or not you know what you gave up," she said, her eyes traveling to the table where Hermione now sat, seated next to her closest friends. "I was really rooting for you two," Heather said, her air suddenly very sad. "Not that I didn't have my own issues with it, one of them being the laws of nature… _our_ nature as Slytherins. But I know there's love there, as odd and as disgusting as it is. And then there would be my own foolish feelings. But whatever those issues are, or were, they're no longer the order of the day."

"What is then?" he asked. "What do I do now?"

"Enjoy your Gryffindor's smiles," Heather said sadly. "Spend the evening loving her, memorizing her because after tonight, you'll never see her again. Not in the same way, anyway…"

Draco turned from Heather's piteous stare and walked slowly away.

"Hey," Hermione's soft voice cut him like a knife and he pulled away as her hand snaked around him. "What's the matter?" she asked, knowing that something was terribly wrong.

"I need to use the men's room," Draco replied and without another word, he turned and walked from the hall.

Staring into the mirror of the bathroom, Draco splashed the cool, clear water over his exhausted features. _Could it really be?_ He asked himself. _Was Voldemort really coming for him? Was this really his last night with Hermione?_ The thought tore through him, wrenching the life from his body and for a second, he felt consciousness leave him completely.

Shaking the thoughts away as best he could, he placed both hands on the rim of the sink and leaned heavily forward.

"Hey," came a sharp voice from behind him and Draco turned, and surprise etched its way across his face when he saw who it was. Harry Potter was standing before him. Draco hadn't heard anyone enter…

"What?" Draco asked, trying to collect himself. But he knew that the water on his face, the weakness of his frame, and his overall haggardly appearance that the boy who lived would not be fooled, so the façade dropped. It took too much energy.

"Hermione's worried." Was all the black haired boy said and Draco chuckled.

"Thank you," Draco snapped.

"When Hermione's worried, we're all worried," Harry continued. "So, whatever your issue, I think you need to go out there and fix it."

"Your concern fills me with joy," Draco said slowly, his lip curling in a sneer. "but I don't have time for your chivalry and I'm this close to losing it," he said, motioning a small amount. After a minute, he saw that Harry hadn't left and decided to use a more direct method of getting rid of him. "Go away." He demanded.

"Look Draco," Harry said, as if he had been thinking of what to say all this time. "I know we've never been anything but enemies," he said and Draco guffawed. "But now you're more than that. You're Hermione's boyfriend and Hermione's been our friend longer than she's even been human in your eyes. I don't trust you, not one bit… but she seems to, so I accept it, I accept you. But if you're bent on being a passing thing," he added. "Then, for the little time you're actually a part of her life, it would be most excellent of you to make her just a fraction happier."

"I'll take your advice to heart," Draco said snidely.

"See to it that you do." And with that, Harry left.

Drawing himself up to his full height and stature, Draco left the restroom and reentered the hall.

His first thought was to seek Hermione out directly, but as he caught sight of her across the room, his determination faltered.

_Enjoy your Gryffindor's smiles… _Draco smiled to himself as he watched her speaking to Weaselby. Her eyes glittered with conviction and animation as she waved her arms fiercely, trying to bring her point alive. He loved that. Loved the way she explained things. He couldn't, however, imagine enjoying it on the other side of the lecture and for once, he understood the brooding, beet red expression on Weasley's face. He felt a pang of annoyance at the distant look in his eyes though… the least he could do was listen. After all, Hermione knew more about everything than anyone did.

Draco almost jumped as he saw Weasley's eyes meet his then light up. He muttered something to Hermione and pointed in his direction. Draco immediately began walking towards her. She turned, saw him, and a smile lit her face as she waved. Draco threw a subdued wave back as he continued approaching.

Upon reaching her side though, the lights dimmed and a single spotlight appeared at the front of the hall. McGonagal stepped forward, the light following.

"Welcome," she called out. "I see most of you enjoying yourselves already and am loathe to interrupt," she said and the room went quiet. "I would like to call a moment of silence in the name of all those who have perished during this dark time," she said and their were hoots of agreement. "So please, bow your heads, and say a silent prayer."

The moment passed agonizingly slow and Draco grew very impatient. But his fidgeting was stopped when he felt Hermione's hand press gently over his. She gave him a squeeze and held tightly. He realized suddenly that she was still mourning the loss of her friend… a very close friend and he felt ashamed. _What was wrong with him? are you already so apathetic?_

Draco felt tears prickling behind his eyes, and he tried to banish them, but they would have their way. A singled tear fell from his eye and ran down his cheek, but he brushed it away before it hit his shirt.

The minute was suddenly over and Hermione was staring at him curiously. She reached up and brushed away the little line of the tear track he had missed in his haste to destroy the evidence of emotion. She looked at him as if he was a child… so tender and full of love and he tried to imagine how pathetic he must look to invoke such looks.

The lights brightened a little, but the room was still only filled with dull light. Music started somewhere and slowly permeated the large area. It was soft and lilting… haunting in a way Draco couldn't describe.

"Would you like to dance?" he asked, suddenly eager to feel the warmth of her against him. Hermione nodded.

He led her gallantly out onto the floor. She wrapped her arms around his neck with a familiar ease and his hands moved slowly down her side and rested comfortably on her slender waist.

"This is nice," he whispered, breathing in the flowery scent of her hair. It was intoxicating.

"Mmhmmm," she acquiesced mindlessly and her thoughtlessness brought a smile to his face.

"Do you mind if we went outside?" he asked, suddenly uncomfortable. The music was getting to him, filling him with fear and regret. It made it almost impossible to enjoy the simple pleasure of being near her. Hermione shook her head, pulling away.

"No, I don't mind. It's pretty warm in here," she lied.

They walked outside. The music could still be heard and Draco had the sudden feeling that he would never escape its haunting tune.

"You're cold," he whispered as goose bumps rose on her arms and he felt her shiver. He pulled her tighter against him, hoping to give her some of his warmth. "I'm sorry," he said softly. "It seemed very… crowded all of the sudden."

"I know what you mean," Hermione replied, surprising him.

"Do you?" he asked.

"What's going on, Draco?" she suddenly asked, a sob hardly masked escaped her.

"What do you mean, Hermione?" He looked down at her and the tears in her eyes very nearly broke his resolve.

"You've acted so strange lately… it's like meeting a new person everyday," she replied. "I get the terrible feeling that everything's gone horribly wrong and I don't know anything about it… like everything is about to crash down on top of me and I can't breathe."

"You worry so much," he said quietly, brushing a strand of hair from her face. Her lips quivered and she looked away.

"Should I?" she asked. "I mean, for god's sake, I don't like to worry about everything…"

"There's one thing you will never have to worry about," Draco said, touching her face ever so lightly. "I may be different… things might… change between us… but nothing will ever—nothing _could_ ever—change the way I feel about you." He paused, his gray eyes dragging her into their cool depths with their intensity. "Worry about anything else… everything else if you so desire, but not that. Don't ever doubt my love for you."

"I don't… and you know how I feel about you," she said quietly. "But I _need_ to know, Draco. I have to know what's going on with you. Let me in. I don't care what you have to tell me, bad, terrible or worse, I just need to know."

"Tomorrow…" He promised, taking in a deep breath as he closed his eyes. A violent breeze rushed around them and leaves went flying. "Let me enjoy this evening with you and I promise I will tell you everything."

"I'm holding you to that," she said and leaning forward, she planted her lips on his. He smiled. His eyes had been closed, so he had not seen it coming. It was always nice to be surprised… Slowly opening his eyes as she deepened the kiss, he saw her eyes flutter. She tried to keep them open, but her will faltered and they closed.

He wrapped his arms tighter around her and leaned into her, forcing her back gently against the cool stone of the castle wall. She let out a gasp and jumped a little at the shocking cold, but as he eased her further against the wall, smothering her in his warmth, she became oblivious to everything but Draco's body pressed fully against her and his lips… and his tongue brushing across her teeth... his hands roaming, sending pleasant shivers up her spine.

"Draco," Hermione moaned, trying to get away, unsure of whether or not she could stand much more.

"Please," he murmured against the curve of her neck and she went still. "Please…" Hermione felt his muscles tighten, a breath expelled against her throat. Then another convulsion... Then another. Hermione felt a shock so deep that she went cold as she suddenly realized Draco Malfoy was crying, his shoulders shaking as if had lost everything.

"Draco…" she whispered, her hands sliding into his hair. She lifted his face to hers and tried to kiss the tears away. She was confused, disturbed, saddened, and fearful all at once as she desperately tried to comfort him.

"Let's just stay right here," he said. "Just a little longer…"

* * *

Inside the door to the dormitory, Hermione had already begun removing Draco's dress coat, feverishly working against cool, smooth buttons.

Reaching the door to his room, he assisted, pulling the jacket off and tossing it onto the couch. Reaching behind him, he opened the door and backed through, all the while his mouth never leaving her neck and his hands never leaving her back.

Once they were both all the way inside, Draco kicked the door closed clumsily with his foot, almost losing his balance.

"Graceful," Hermione whispered with a small giggle.

"I can be," he replied smoothly and in one fluid motion, he swept her into his arms and laid her on top of his rumpled comforter. Looking down at her, he realized she trusted him completely. Whatever he did, she was ready for it. His heart constricted and he experienced a rare moment of doubt… _could he really do this when she didn't know the truth?_

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing…" he replied, covering her mouth with soft kisses that made her moan.

She reached up to his shirt and began working with those buttons as he reached behind her with one hand, his hand grasping at the small zipper at the back of her dress. He felt her hesitation, her hands stopped moving so he paused, waiting for her to decide. He saw her nod to herself, resolving to finish what she had started. Her hands continued with the buttons of his dress shirt. Upon reaching the bottom, she slid the shirt up over his shoulders, savoring the indecency of his bare, smooth skin beneath her palms.

Draco let out a sigh, his breath shaking as he said, "I'll love you forever…"

Her dress unzipped, he slid it from her shoulders, pulling it down until it exposed her flat stomach. Draco stared for a moment, his mind going blank as he stared ay her prefect body stretched out beneath him. He reached out slowly and Hermione squirmed as his hand touched bare skin.

"You're ticklish everywhere, then?" he asked mischievously, running several fingers over her uncovered torso. She laughed, then grew quiet, unsure of herself suddenly. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

"No. nothing's wrong…" she replied and Draco sensed something in her voice and her behavior. _She's a virgin,_ he thought to himself as if the thought of Granger in bed had never occurred to him… But he had. Numerous times. But never had he imagined it would be her first… that he would be her first. Then came the rebuttal. _How else would it have been?_ He shrugged to himself. _You should take this really slow…_

_Is this even really happening?_ And with that thought, Draco allowed himself to be lost in the moment…

* * *

A/N: so basically... I let this chapter go where it would. It just seemed a fitting time for them to... you know get together and when hell freezes over applies to almost everything in this entire chapter. get the irony? Okay, so there's like one chapter left of this story and for the sequel im just going to make an author's note after the next chapter and continue it there. Hope you stick around that long. The next story's allready started and planned out. and if you havent figured it out... its AU now. lol.


	46. Beginning Stages of the Dark Mark

Chapter Forty-Six: The Beginning Stages of the Dark Mark

* * *

Hermione woke in the early hours of the morning to an empty room. It was as if all the life had been sucked from the place without Draco lying beside her, his arm thrown over her back like they had been together for years…

Hermione sat up, tears springing to her eyes. Something was wrong and she knew it…

She stood, pulling the sheets securely around her, and made her way to his desk, which sat in the corner. There was a single piece of parchment covered in Draco's thin, decisive script… and next to the letter was a golden hairpin.

It was so bright and so shiny that it seemed to almost glow. Atop the leaf-etched golden design however, there was mounted a jewel butterfly. Its head was emerald, the antenna's polished silver, the body, ruby, the wings were the whitest of opal inlaid with sapphire eyes… it took her breath away.

Taking it into her hand, she felt the steady thrum of magic seeping from the object. A protection spell, she knew.

Without reading it, Hermione folded Draco's letter and allowed the tears to fall.

* * *

Draco sat up, his ears particularly honed and his eyes strained against the darkness as he tried to see the threat looming just beyond his line of sight.

A shock wave of pain moved swiftly through him and he let out a cry of pain. Twitching violently, he doubled over. As he struggled to sit up, the pain grew more intense and he fell with a loud thump off the bed. He writhed for several minutes as the pain consumed him. It felt as though his flesh was charring, exposing muscle… peeling the meat of his body away from the bones. Slowly the pain shifted, concentrating in one spot. His left arm. The most excruciating pain he had ever felt was suddenly upon him and he couldn't even force a cry from his throat…

Then it stopped.

Draco whimpered.

A dark, deafening silence filled the room as the shadows all converged, forming together into one giant menacing cloud.

"I've come for what is mine," the shadow whispered.

"Nothing here is yours," Draco rasped.

"Think again Malfoy." The shadow wrapped around his wrist and snaked up his forearm. Draco couldn't see it in the dark, but he already knew what was there…

I never got the chance to tell you everything, so here I must make my explanations. I have betrayed you… betrayed everyone. Lord Voldemort came to me last night, claimed his prize… my life and every last shred of goodness in me is left with you. Hermione… I am so very sorry and if I could say anything else that could make amends for this grave mistake, I would have you name it. But there is no amends. No redemption. Only the perdition I have summoned upon myself in one moment of selfish weakness. But know this… everything. Every word I said to you last night, everything we did, was me. Me being honest. This sacrifice… this one last thing I had to give, I gave for you. You saved me, Hermione, trusted me when no one else would and for that I am forever indebted. I am sorry. So very sorry. I'll love you forever Hermione Granger and nothing about you will ever be forgotten.

* * *

Endless tears. Endless pain.

* * *

A/N: This is the last chapter of this story. I will next be posting a synopsis of the sequel which I will keep posting on this link. if you like, keep reading. It will only make sense if you do... blackmail? i know.


	47. Still Fighting the Enemy 2

This story is called Still Fighting the Enemy 2… um. Yeah. I will be updating it regularly and it is most obviously the sequel to my other story Still Fighting the Enemy. It is officially AU, but if you like my writing, you won't know it lol. I ask you to read my author's page so you know what I expect when reviewing and all the things that may interrupt my updates. Other than that though, I have nothing else to say about it. I hope you read it and I hope you like it. If you write to me, I will write you back. I think reviewers are the best people in the world and I'd love to hear from anyone who has anything to say.


	48. The Year of the Dark War

**In case you didnt realize it, this is part two of my other story. Yay. Going to be way better.**

* * *

Chapter One: The Year of the Dark War

* * *

Summer had not been kind to Draco Malfoy. Upon first look, anyone who knew him would say he looked very much the same, but on closer inspection, they would see he was very much changed… 

His blond hair, which he had gotten into the habit of letting fall freely, was gelled and combed back, giving his face a very severe look. His blue eyes were narrower, lacking a single spark of humor or life. Running from his left eye all the way down his jaw there was a thin silver scar, the first one ever to mar his perfect face. Below his perfectly pressed jacket were bruised and broken ribs, cuts, and torn muscle.

But from the way he stood, so straight and rigid, disciplined, no one would know it hurt to breath, hurt to stand, hurt to think. He was the walking wounded, so close to dead that he was leaning most of his weight against the red, high-backed chair that seated Lord Voldemort.

"You will go," the man breathed, a laugh in his voice. "and they will accept you. It is his way."

"I can't," Draco said, turning, looking out the window. _There is one person who won't ever accept me…_ "They wouldn't believe a word of it."

"That doesn't matter, my boy." Draco cringed at the term of endearment, his eyes fluttered closed. "It's the beauty of goodness… the beauty of weakness and malleability. Dumbledore will look at you and see me, the one child he failed." Voldemort laughed, a deep cackle that echoed through the room, chilling Draco to the core. He suddenly wanted to throw up. He wanted to die. "I can feel your thoughts," Voldemort muttered. "Your weakness is most annoying."

"I'm sorry, Lord," Draco said, curbing his self-pity. He would save those musing for when he was in the privacy of his own chambers.

"I can sense a restlessness in you this morning… Do you need to see Persad?" Voldemort drawled, the question filled with threat.

"You are gracious to offer, My Lord," Draco drawled back. "But no. Regrettably, I have other things I must attend to."

"Of course, of course." Voldemort waved him away and Draco gave a small bow, just the slightest inclination of his head, then walked out of the room.

"You leave for King's Cross in three days. I don't want to see you until then," Voldemort yelled and Draco slammed the door as he left the small study. His hands shook with the rage he felt.

"Things went well, I'm assuming," came a sweet voice from the corner under the staircase and Draco turned to see his long lost counterpart.

Her blond hair was long and elegant, pulled behind her head in a complicated mess of curls and strategically placed glittering clips. Her blue eyes, so like his own, were wide with fear, outlined in green kohl. She wore a beautiful green dress, long and flowing, it showed her thin frame. Fitting for a princess.

God, Draco's mother loved dressing the girl up. She spent hours in the mornings dressing her. She spared no expense on jewelry and clothes. Draco felt nauseous thinking about the way his mother treated her like a doll. Diana was new to being a Malfoy.

"Diana, you shouldn't be down here," he said gently, reaching for her hand. Her fingertips touched his and he felt a shock of soul recognition run through him.

"Please call me Ana," she whispered, letting him lead her out from underneath the stairs.

"Your name is Diana," Draco said, his voice a little colder than he had meant.

"It doesn't feel like it," was her reply.

"I know," Draco said softly. "But you should be proud of that name."

"It's not that I'm not," she snapped. "But people call you Draco. That is not your name."

"Touché," Draco said with a smirk, which she returned with a reserved, docile smile of her own.

"Will I be going with you?" Diana asked. "To school?" Draco realized she must have been listening at the door and mentally warned himself to have a word with her later about doing such things.

"No," Draco replied. "Not at this point." And without saying anything else, he left her at the foot of the stairs to walk herself up.

* * *

Harry handed the letter to Ron then rolled off the bed with an exasperated sigh.

"You can't blame him, Harry," Hermione said as she read the note over Ron's shoulder. "You're not even graduated yet, even if you are of age. You've got plenty of experience, but they can't just wave the schooling requirements…"

"Why the bloody hell not?" Ron asked, taking his normal place at Harry's side of an argument. "If anyone's going to be helpful to the Ministry, It'd be Harry. He's seen more than most Aurors these days have."

"I know that, you know that, and Dumbledore knows that," Hermione snapped. "But quite frankly, Dumbledore has done more to keep Harry out of this fight than even we know about. Like he's going to throw all of that away and give Harry permission to risk his life daily… you heard what they wrote in the Prophet… They think this will be the year of the dark war… Dumbledore's not stupid, he's going to keep kids out of it for as long as he can."

"But going to the Ministry behind my back? Refusing to sign my recommendation forms? Moving me from the Dursleys the day after I arrived?" Shouted Harry, pulling at his hair. "He's forcing me to stand around and do nothing. I can't do it."

"Finish your last year of school, Harry," Hermione said quietly. "That's all he wants from you. That's all he needs you to do. One last year of childhood, of Quidditch, of dating, of friendship. Live your life while you've got it."

The room was silent when Hermione finished. Ron looked at Harry and Harry looked at Ron. Both of them busted up laughing.

"You're so serious all the time," Ron said.

"I can't be mad when you say stuff like that," added Harry. "I guess Malfoy was good for something after all."

Hermione's smile faded as fast as it had come and her hand flew to her chest pocket. She felt tears rise to her eyes as the steady vibration of magic coursed through her fingertips. Her heart ached, her throat tightened.

"I'm sorry," Harry said and his gentle hand was placed lightly on her shoulder. "I didn't think before I said it."

"It's all right," Hermione lied, trying to perk up. She swiftly wiped a tear from her eye and attempted a smile. "Really, I'm fine." She removed her hand from over her pocket and sat up a little straighter.

"If I ever see that git again, I'll ring his neck," Ron growled.

"I doubt any of us will ever see him again," Harry said. "Once you're in Voldemort's inner circle like that… your life expectancy drops to nearly nothing percent," he added and Hermione quelled the pang of concern she felt.

"Besides, he got what he wanted," Ron said. "I even trusted the bloke…"

"It's good that school will be starting," Harry said and Hermione could have hugged him. "Things will be back to normal again."

"Yeah," Ron said almost dreamily.

"Yeah," Hermione agreed only half heartedly. She truly doubted whether anything would be normal ever again…

* * *

**A/N: so here it is! A wonderful beginning. For this story, there will be several more chapters than the last one. It's going to be long and it's going to be fun, so stick with it! I was thinking about making it its own separate story, but since its the same story, i figured i'd just continue it on here. So, let me know what you think. It's AU now, but who really cares?**


	49. Widow Malfoy Marries a Riddle

Chapter Two: Widow Malfoy Marries a Riddle

* * *

Hermione felt an indescribable pang when she saw him. Like her heart had stopped beating and didn't want to start again. Like all the air had been sucked out of the train. Out of her life. The edge of her vision started to blacken and close in on her. Only a steady hand on her shoulder could stop the effect from completing its job.

"What's _he_ doing here?" she heard Ron ask.

"I'll bloody well find out!" Harry said, rushing forward.

Hermione couldn't keep her eyes from him. He was taller, or so it seemed. His silver hair, shorter now, was slicked back from his face. His clothes were new… shiny… rich. A whimper escaped her. Turning quickly, she ran down the hallway. Ran as fast as her weak legs could carry her.

"Hey Hermione!" Ron called after her and two cold, blue eyes turned on him only to see a robed, redheaded figure looking after another robed student with bushy brown hair as she disappeared behind the corner.

Hermione sat on the toilet seat lid, her head bent over her knees as she tried to stifle her sobs and keep herself from throwing up. Held tightly in her hand was a butterfly pin brooch. Its magic was stronger than ever, moving through her with a deep, comforting hum.

Suddenly her sobbing stopped and she looked up at the door to the latrine. He was there. She could feel his black aura seeping through the door.

* * *

Draco knew he shouldn't be doing this. He should have just walked to the Slytherin car and not looked back. But he had seen her upon boarding the train. She was more beautiful than ever. A little thinner, a little paler… but never had he seen Hermione look more real than she had been that second. The emotion was intoxicating.

He leaned his head against the door that stood between them, taking a deep breath and letting it go with a sigh. God he missed her.

* * *

Hermione stood and opened the door in one swift movement. He was gone.

"Good," she said to herself as she left the small bathroom, soon to be occupied by a very sick looking Hufflepuff third year.

Walking slowly to the front of the train, Hermione began checking cars for her friends, who ended up being at the end of the hall. As she entered, she felt eyes upon her. Curious eyes that bore through her with a million questions.

"You all right?" Harry finally asked.

"I'm fine," Hermione said with a weary sigh as she sat, shoving herself between Ron and Harry, who both latched onto her. "But tell me, what the hell is he doing here?"

"Apparently, he has every right to be here," Harry said.

"He openly admitted to being a Death Eater," Hermione said.

"In your letter, yes," Harry said. "But that is not evidence."

"Not evidence my ass!" Ron practically shouted and Harry cringed. "Sorry mate, I know it's not your choice that he's here."

"It certainly isn't." Harry admitted, a dark look in his eyes. Hermione felt gratified by their obvious indignity yet still felt all the weight of her own.

_How could he?_ It was an insult to her and everything he had told her for him to deny the truth of the letter. Worse than that, it caused doubt—a doubt of the testimony she had made that summer. They couldn't _make_ him bare the dark mark—no one on the Hogwarts staff could—But Hermione knew it was there and she was as sure of that as she was of anything else.

Sighing, she settled back into the seats. This was going to be a long train ride to school and ever worse… it was going to be a very long year.

* * *

Draco received the letter while he was unpacking his things in the Head Boy's room from a fourth year boy a little too eager to be of service. He said that Draco's eagle owl had landed and made a fuss. Draco took the letter and walked to his desk. Sitting down with a sigh, Draco tossed the letter, addressed from home, to the corner of the desk. Of all the seventh year students, Dumbledore had selected him… Draco felt frustrated. Was the old man trying to rub it in? Because he was certainly doing a well enough job…

A few minutes of silence were sufficient enough to raise some curiosity and Draco grabbed the sealed letter and tore it open. His mother's neat, scrawling hand came into view and he almost missed her… almost didn't hate her. But her words soon fixed that.

"Marry Tom Riddle?" Draco sat up, suddenly straight, every muscle in his body rigid. At the bottom of the letter, after wishing him luck with his final school year, his mother had signed Narcissa Riddle…

Draco needed a drink...

* * *

A/N: Man, its been a while. Took fricken forever to get over the writer's block thing and this is all i have to show? Lame? I know, but hey, its a start. at least I wrote it right? well, just to let you all know, these first few chapters, until I really get into the groove of things, will be short and they will be choppy. work with me. I have a lot of storyline to incorporate and not a lot of space. Keep reading though, they will get better, they will get longer, and they WILL WILL WILL make more sense very very soon... I promise. Now i have to go update my other story and work on the next chapter of this one... hehe... work work work


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